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Sean Conway

Author •
Sports Personality

The Endurance Guy

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About

Gender: Male

Nationality: United Kingdom

Languages: English

Travels from: United Kingdom

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Website

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Biography Highlights

Sean Conway is an world-record setting adventurer, ultra-endurance athlete and inspirational speaker.
- 105 Iron mans (full distance triathlons) in a row: a new world record
- First person to swim the length of Britain
- Fastest person to cycle across Europe solo and unsupported
- 4,200 mile continuous triathlon
- Cycled around the world

Biography

Sean Conway: The Endurance Adventurer

Sean understands the long game. Over ten years, Sean has set and broken endurance world records. Drawing on his experience running, swimming and cycling his way into the history books, Sean’s powerful messages are hard-won. Discover how Sean transformed his life from former corporate photographer to a world-record-setting endurance adventurer. Learn how he created an endurance mindset enabling him to go further and faster and achieve a world-first.

Iron105

In 2023, Sean achieved 105 consecutive full distance triathlons, a new world-record. Sean swam 2.5 miles, cycled 112 miles and ran a marathon of 26.2 miles each day. It was unbelievably tough. It helped Sean to know he was raising funds and awareness for a charity close to his heart. (The True Venture Foundation inspires and supports children and young athletes by improving access to opportunities through sport.)

First Person to Swim the Length of Britain

In 2015, Sean became the first person to complete the Great British Triathlon: cycling, swimming and running the length of Britain from Land’s End to John O’Groats. The swim was considered impossible, too dangerous and had never even been attempted but Sean defied the doubters and completed this world-first. With an adventure documentary by Discovery TV and considerable media interest, Sean and his trademark beard had arrived.

Furthest Ultra Triathlon

Sean completed a self-supported continuous Ultra Triathlon around the coast of Britain: Sean cycled 3,350 miles, ran 800 miles and swam from Brighton to Lulworth Cove to complete the coastal route in 2016. (This is approximately the distance from London to Dehli.) Discovery Channel followed Sean’s incredible challenge to produce a three-part TV series: On the Edge as he finished the world’s longest ultra triathlon.

Fastest

In 2018, Sean became the fastest person to cycle the 4000 miles across Europe from Portugal to Russia, solo and unsupported. He completed this in 24 days 18 hours and 39 minutes.

Sean is a hugely popular endurance athlete known for pushing his limits. His talks are tailored for each audience and Sean is able to draw on a wide variety of endurance challenges.

During the covid pandemic, Sean launched the 496 Challenge: running the day of the month in kilometres each day (from 1km to 31km). A huge hit through Sean’s social media engagement, 496 remains a popular endurance challenge to start the year! By thinking creatively when larger adventures were postponed, Sean inspired many others to set their own challenges, small and large. Sean also ran 15 marathons in 15 British National Parks on 15 days (2021) and completed a triathlon around the edge of Wales (2022). Sean reminds us to ask, no matter what the restrictions, what can be achieved?

Although now well-known for his quirky take on endurance sports and adventures, Sean’s earlier life may surprise many. Sean came to the UK in 2002 with just £100 in his wallet and started working in Cambridge cutting 12,000 cabbages a day. Later, having made his living as a photographer, Sean sold his business for £1 knowing he had to take a risk and change his life and its purpose. He found he had a talent for setting and reaching outrageous adventure goals.

Sean is passionate about encouraging others to take on a challenge, to be outside in nature and to live more adventurously, no matter how that looks for each one of us. He messages are built around his unique perspective on endurance, training for an endurance mindset, developing resilience and taking on the seemingly impossible.

Sean’s talks are memorable and entertaining. He delivers powerful messages around setting outrageous goals, coping with setbacks, maintaining a positive attitude and staying motivated when it gets tough. While focused on achieving his goal, Sean effectively engages others on social media communicating the realities of his extreme adventures with candid humour.

Sean’s talks chart the highs and lows, share the successes and the set-backs to inspire us to believe we can succeed against the odds in work, adventure and any life challenges we may face, big and small.

Videos

Showreels

Media, podcast appearances and interviews

Speaking videos

Sean'S

TESTIMONIALS

We’ve had some really positive feedback from the team about Sean’s talk. It was very inspiring to hear about his adventures and I think a lot of us are now considering how we can start to live life to the full a bit more!

M&S

Sean was absolutely incredible and his talk was so engaging – it was really brilliant. He also very kindly stuck around for a little while afterwards to speak to some of the teams, which was really lovely of him to do so. A huge thank you to you both, it really helped set the tone for the event.

Dell Technologies Management Challenge: Run4Wales

Sean was an absolute star and made a great impression on the team.

D30

Sean was a fantastic speaker at our company-wide annual off-site. His enthusiasm and energy are infectious and people can’t help but be motivated by his achievements. Sean also effectively links in key themes that the business is working on – so that his talk is both inspirational and relevant. Thoroughly recommended.

L3 Commercial Training Solutions

He tailored talks to meet our objectives, seamlessly absorbing our messages into his stories and providing inspiration and motivation to change, to develop and to grow. There was no fuss or apparent nervousness – he simply told the stories of his adventures in a way that made them accessible and achievable and inspired the audience to focus and deliver. Brilliant!

Corporate Communications Manager,

Ordnance Survey

The audience LOVED it! I have had nothing but great feedback. He was honest, amusing and entertaining. I cannot think how he could have been better. We really enjoyed him coming along and talking to us.

ITV

We had a great talk. The staff were really enthused by Sean. We've had loads of positive feedback. He was funny, engaging and of course, really inspiring and it all tied back in really well with our values campaign.

Mizuho Financial Group

Thank you on behalf of our Senior Leaders for your inspiring presentation to us. Everyone who saw and heard you enjoyed it immensely but did question your sanity for taking on such extreme challenges! I know that you will have inspired many of us to take up challenges either in a professional or personal capacity and indeed we will inspire others to do so as a result of your presentation. The theme of the presentation was personal resilience and you showed us that taking it one step at a time really helps to focus on the immediate challenge and that helps to build up endurance. You also showed us that failure is not an inhibitor but a motivator to succeed and to aim high.

West Yorkshire Police

Please pass on our thanks to Sean for his brilliant talk. I loved his relaxed and funny manner. My business partner loved it too and I have heard only positive comments from the attendees. The audience certainly kept him busy afterwards with questions and photo opportunities and he has, without doubt, expanded his fan base.

Expo 2016: Marathon des Sables

We've asked Sean to speak to a number of different audiences and have found him to be inspirational to a wide range of people – from staff to business owners to entrepreneurs. His attitude is so inspiring and he refuses to let anything get in his way – determined to achieve his goals, despite the many barriers put in his way. His exploits are amazing and he delivers his stories in a very amusing and natural way – you can’t help but like him and be amazed at what he has achieved. And he is very real, open and honest about his adventures and the setbacks along the way.

Corporate Communications Manager,

Ordnance Survey

Sean was fantastic! Proper gent and delivered a fantastic talk. It was really great that he spent time afterwards talking with us and having a few drinks. Will recommend to everyone.

Park Resorts

Sean has an amazing story to tell and he delivers messages and inspiration that work both at a personal and business level. He was willing to adapt his storytelling to fit our specific audience and it made for an engaging and entertaining session.

Sky Media (Head Marketing)

Sean was a pleasure to work with and he was really well received by our audience.

NCC

It was a pleasure to have Sean with us. For inspiring the audience to think about "Challenging Situations" and "Not to Give up" – he certainly did that very well. We got feedback from people who said that they enjoyed his presentation very much.

Career Academies UK

A true inspiration to us. The talk was well constructed and great detail was made to show the most exciting and jaw-dropping tales from a young man's youth.

Bradford University

A massive thank you to Sean. His presentation was a perfect start to the festival and was commented on by many people throughout the weekend.

Peebles Outdoor Film Festival

The keynote speaker was Sean Conway who swam the length of Britain – a mere 900 miles! Sean was very enthusiastic and inspirational. I am sure he awoke the spirit of adventure in the audience. Sean's mottos "Don't be scared of Failing" and "Aim Higher" resonated well and he made us all realise that with will, determination, focus and self-belief we can reach our goals in life.

YPI Scotland

I really enjoyed Sean's lecture – he is so full of energy and passion for his adventures. It all seemed to go well and plenty of people were there to hear him. Please pass on my best wishes and congratultions for a great evening. I will look out for his book!

Wilderness Lectures

Just come back from listening to Sean’s extraordinarily inspirational talk. The sixth form loved him and there was a queue of Year 13 lads trying to get ‘selfies’ with him. One of Year 10, curious about all the fuss, asked me if Sean was a rock star – I told him he was better than that, that he was a professional adventurer!

Cheam School

It was great having Sean Conway speaking at our event. As we had a range of age groups attending, all with an adventurous spirit, we required a speaker that would appeal to this and keep everyone enthused and he did not disappoint! Not only was he funny but also inspiring and thoroughly entertained us all. From a host's perspective, the ease of booking was great and efficient. Sean turned up on time and just got on with it!

Dean Close School

Sean's talk about his John O'Groats swim kept an audience of 500 young people and parents enthralled from start to finish. His down to earth manner and can do attitude were truly inspiring and he left many in the audience thinking about how to challenge themselves and achieve something that they didn't think they were capable of.

Youth Philanthropy Initiative

Books

Hell and High Water: My Epic 900-Mile Swim from Land’s End to John O'Groats

In June 2013 Sean Conway set out from Land’s End in his bid to be the first person to swim the length of Britain. It was a challenge so extreme that not only had it never been attempted before, but most of the sponsors Sean approached turned him down as they were worried that he would die trying. Landlocked Cheltenham – Sean’s hometown – isn’t really the ideal place to train for a long sea swim, and he only managed three miles in a local pool before setting off from Land’s End. Once in the water Sean had to develop incredible mental strength to deal with the extreme cold and hours alone. He also needed to devise ways to take on the huge number of calories he needed to sustain him. On the support boat he and his three-man crew had to cope with storms, seasickness and living in close proximity for months. After taking a few jellyfish stings to the face, Sean decided to grow a huge beard to protect himself. The physical challenge was gruelling, but came with unexpected rewards. Sean swam with dolphins and seals and among stunning night-time phosphorescence. He had a unique view of the British coast, discovering tiny hidden coves and exploring shipwrecks. When there were problems with the support boat, Sean and his crew met many kindly people who were willing to come to their aid. From the first person to complete a British ‘triathlon’ – running, swimming and biking the length of Britain – this is Sean’s remarkable and funny story about how anything is possible if you truly put your mind to it.

Big Mile Cycling: Ten Years. 60000 Miles. One Dream

In 2008 Sean Conway set off on a 1000 mile bike ride that would shape the next 10 years of his life as he became obsessed with the idea of becoming a real ultra-cyclist. This is his story, how he tried, and failled many times, to break a cycling world record, and the story about his final world record attempt, cycling 4000 miles across Europe. Sean nearly gave up on his dream after tragically losing two of his ultra-cycling friends, but decided to continue in their honour with his quest to chase big miles on two wheels. Sean looks back at some of his cycling heroes, heroines, and the boom in ultra-cycling over the last decade.

Cycling the Earth: A Life-changing Race Around the World

Sean Conway was stuck in a life dead end of his own making when he heard about a round the world cycling race. He was immediately inspired – but it was a huge undertaking and he’d hardly been on a bike in years. Could he really cycle all the way round the world, solo and unsupported? Six months later, after completing a punishing training schedule and packing up everything he owned into boxes, Sean was in Greenwich Park on the start line of the adventure of a lifetime. Soon he was way ahead of schedule, averaging 180 miles per day, and on course to break the round the world cycling record. But then disaster struck, and Sean was forced to confront the possibility that he may not be able to complete the race… In the course of his 16,000-mile journey, Sean travelled the famous pan-American highway across the Atacama Desert, outran tornados, relied on fellow travellers to ferry water across the Australian outback, and inadvertently joined a cycle club in Mumbai. He learnt things about himself he didn’t know and rediscovered a spirit of adventure that changed everything. This is a book about an amazing and sometimes incredibly difficult journey, but it’s also a book about never giving up when there’s an opportunity to follow your dreams.

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