Every once in a while a story comes along that is worth sharing. Sean Conway's attempt to break the world record of 101 consecutive iron-distance triathlons, is one of those.
We first met Sean when he was our guest at IRONMAN 70.3 Bolton. It was a few months after he'd broken the record, going on to complete 105 iron-distance consecutive triathlons. For those watching and listening to Sean on stage with us that day, this was a belief-defying feat of endurance by any standard.
'We've always been fascinated by athletes who are prepared to go to extreme lengths, to not only beat a record - but also to discover what the body and mind is truly capable of.'
There are only a handful of people on the planet who have completed over 30 consecutive iron-distance triathlons - and so to attempt to better the record of 101, would seem impossible. And in fact that's what many told him when he shared his ambition.
We wanted to get to know Sean better and find out what (on earth) he was thinking when he decided to go for the challenge. We needed to know what amount of planning, training and preparation goes into attempting to break a world record of this nature.
Sean invited us down to his home in North Wales. The date was agreed and the location set. A cold and misty morning on Bwlch Penbarras provided all the ingredients we required for capturing for a dramatic opening drone shot.
After a couple hours (and many hill repeats), shooting with action camera, gimbals and tripod-based cameras on the mountain pass, we headed down into the Welsh valleys - and as the sun broke through the trees, shooting out the back of the van (slightly precarious), we captured Sean gliding along the lanes on his beloved bike.
The cold weather was closing in so we retreated back to Sean's impressive office (man-cave), where we set up for a chat about his endeavours.
We could've talked for hours - but alas, all good things must come to an end. We wrapped up after an efficient half day shoot and began the long journey home.
The hardest part about editing these types of productions is choosing the best bits.... (as we had enough material to create a 15 minute feature)! However, after a couple of re-edits we were happy that we had successfully encapsulated Sean's story.
Next up we would need to enlist the help of a friend (and one of the best Colourists in the business) for the role of bringing life and colour to the sequence. Marieta carefully crafted the edit and spiced up the sequence with animation to highlight media coverage of the story.
We hope this to be the first of many stories which help to inspire and motivate others to go forth and achieve their own heroic accomplishments - whether that's multiple iron distance races or their first 5k!
We'd love to know who you'd like us to chat with next... Until then, we hope you enjoy the film as much as we enjoyed making it for you
Thanks to Sean and all involved. You can follow Sean's endurance adventures on his Instagram here.
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