Sean Conway (born 1981) is a Zimbabwean ultra endurance athlete, author of 6 books and motivational speaker. Sean famously broke the world record for completing 105 ironmans in 105 days. He was also was the first person to swim the length of Britain, is the only person to have completed a length of Britain triathlon, has completed the world's longest triathlon of 4200 miles and has the world record for the fastest self supported cycle across europe.
Early years
Conway was born in Harare, Zimbabwe, on 6 April 1981. He later attended Hilton College in South Africa. He lived in Cheltenham for a number of years before moving to the Lake District in 2016. In 2020 he moved to Wales with his wife Caroline and two boys.
He earns his living as an adventurer, author and public speaker.
Swimming
Starting on 30 June 2013, Conway set out to swim from Land's End in the south-west of Great Britain, to John o' Groats, in the north, travelling up the west coast of Great Britain and via the east coast of Ireland. He completed the swim on 11 November, the first person to do so, having swum , in 135 days, 90 of which were spent in the water, the others avoiding contrary tides, resting, and avoiding bad weather, sometimes ashore and sometimes on his support yacht. He grew a thick beard to help prevent jellyfish stinging his face.
He used the achievement to raise money for the charity War Child.
Triathlon
Sean Conway became the first person to complete an "ultimate triathlon" when he finished running from John O' Groats to Land's End, having already cycled and swum the entire way before. The run was made into a two-part documentary called Sean Conway:Running Britain for Discovery Channel UK. Sean Conway completed the "ultimate triathlon" unsupported, without the support of a team and lifeboats.
In 2016 Sean set the world record for the world's longest triathlon. A 4200 mile journey around the coast of Britain. This was made into a documentary now on Amazon Prime called Sean Conway on the Edge. This record has since been broken by Jonas Deichmann
In 2023 Sean Conway also broke the world record for the most ironmans completed in a row. He completed 105 ironmans in 105 days surpassing James Lawrences record of 101.
Cycling
Sean took the record for the fastest, unsupported crossing of Europe by bicycle in March 2018. Starting in Cabo de Roca on the west coast of Portugal, he successfully cycled nearly 4,000 miles, finishing at the Russian town of Ufa in 24 days, 18 hours and 39 minutes. The movie Europe or Bust covers this trip. It was later superseded by Leigh Timmis in a fully supported attempt the same year.
Sean has also cycled around the world in 2012 in an attempt to break the world record. Unfortunately his record attempt came to an abrupt end when he got run over in America. He continued after 3 weeks recovery to raise money for Solar Aid successfully returning to London 155 days later.
in 2008 Sean cycled Land's End to John O'Groat which took him 25 days. He wrote a book about his journey.
Running
Sean has run the length of Britain which took 44 days. It was made into a documentray for Discovery Channel called Sean Conway Running Britain.
Sean has run across Iceland which took 10 days. There is a short film on Youtube about his run.
Sean ran a marathon in each of the UK national parks consecutively. So that's 15 Marathons in 15 days.
Sean also once ran 280 miles from Conwy Castle in North Wales to Castle Conway on the west of Ireland.
The 496 Challenge
Sean came up with the now global challenge called The 496 Challenge. The concept is to run the day of the month in kilometres. So on the 1st of the month, you run 1 km, 2nd, 2 km and so on, ending the month with a 31 km run. Add that all together you land up running 496 km.
Books
2012 - Cycling Lands End to John O'Groats
2014 - Cycling The Earth
2015 - Running Britain
2016 - Hell or High Water
2018 - Big Mile Cycling
2019 - The Chronicles of William Wilder - Tempuras Treasure
Documentaries
Sean Conway Running Britain - Discovery Channel (Now on Amazon Prime)
Sean Conway On The Edge - Discovery Channel (Now on Amazon Prime)
Sean Conway Europe or Bust - Amazon Prime
The 496 Challenge - YouTube Short Film
National Park Marathons - YouTube Short Film
Running Across Iceland - YouTube Short Film
Public Speaking
Sean Conway does motivational speaking and has given a TEDx talk amongst many others.