The Enduroman Arch to Arc is without doubt, the toughest triathlon in the world to complete. I say this quite confidently. Notice I didn't say, 'The toughest Endurance event in the world". This statement is becoming a bit of a house joke at the moment. It seems every documentary on TV where somebody has to walk more than a marathon or have less than 8 hours sleep is carrying this title. More people have walked on the moon, climbed Mount Everest and of course swam the English Channel than the A2A. When an athlete keeps 'upping' the severity of his chosen sport, the A2A sits right at the top or ours.
There are 3 types of athletes. These are the good, the bad and the ugly. There are thousands of 'good' athletes around the world, but the event demands a lot more than just talent. These athletes may have sponsors, a £5000 bike, 5% body fat and a sub 9hr Ironman time but if they start squealing like a pig when you dunk them in 10 degree water for more than an hour, or they can't puke up continuously for 10mins without breaking stroke, then they should stick to events that can be completed in less than half a day. They are usually the ones that think they know better, regardless of experience. Note the word 'usually' though. The ones that don't have a head start.
Then there's the 'bad'. Not in terms of ability, but motivation. I can usually work out if an athlete will be successful by asking, 'So why do you want to do this thing?" I have spoke to over 200 people in the last year that have expressed an interest in attempting the A2A and pretty soon you can realize who the t-shirt grabbers are. 9 times out of 10, I never hear from them again. The 'bad' are the athletes who's sole motivation is to be able to wear the t-shirt, only on club nights and race days so everybody can see what a great athlete they are. For example, I received an email from an athlete a while ago, asking if I could change the design of an event's finishing t-shirt so that the distances completed were displayed on the front of the t-shirt so that the person speaking to them would know what they have done. If this is what motivates you, I suggest there may be other issues going on that need to be put to bed before you jump in the English Channel after running from London. One athlete is attempting the A2A because there are scared shi**less of deep water and they can't think of anything scarier to do that swim the channel to conquer their life-fear. Another successful A2A athlete's sole motivation was to raise money for his best friend that died in suspicious circumstances whilst abroad with friends. Another stated that they had been training for the A2A for the last 15 years. These are all athletes that DO NOT fall into the 'bad' category and probably have the correct motivation to succeed (2 of them already have). With that said, all athletes at the top of their sport display a degree of arrogance. And the desire to want others to know how good you are is a motivator.
Then there is the ugly. As the name suggests, they are not a pretty sight. These athletes usually go with gut feelings rather than common sense, as long as the job gets done. Their brains have been slightly 'numbed' over the years due to several factors that have given them a rock-hard shell. They may not be sub 9-hour Ironman, or sub 15-hours, or have even completed one at all, but they would die trying to finish. We have all seen athletes crawl across the finish line, refusing to board the ambulance until they finish, athletes carrying their bikes 30 or more miles due to mechanical failure just so they can start the run and finish the event and I have seen athletes who have been swimming for 12 hours and be told 'go hard for 4 hours and you may get to France', only to be told after 4 hours that the tides have changed and they have at least another 5 hours of swimming left. Tom Beaver's reply was, 'OK, as long as I'm moving forward". The ugly athlete doesn't ask 'why?' at the time. He just gets on with it and finds out the answer when he's finished, if they are indeed bothered at all. There is an old expression when somebody follows instructions and gets into trouble that goes something like this, "If he told you to jump off a bridge would you still do it?". These are 'ugly' athletes. There are able to listen, learn and do things that they may not agree with, but trusts in other's knowledge and experience... just to get the job done. Ugly athletes will go above and beyond their call off duty. Can you imagine attempting this event for the first time 15 years ago, when nobody knew about the event, nobody had attempted it, there was no website, no live-feed, no finishing t--shirt ? (well that cancels out any successful attempt by a 'bad' athlete'). Where does the motivation come from?
This was Eddie Ette's story back in the early 1990's. He failed the swim, so he returned a few years later and made another attempt. Where did his motivation come from? He failed the swim again, so 2 weeks later he returned to London and ran the 84 miles again and made another attempt at swimming across the channel. Motivation? He failed again so he returned a couple of years later and tried again. This time he was successful and set the world record that still stands today. Even I have problems comprehending how Eddie did that. What drove him? Where did he get his strength from? One thing is for sure, and I don't mean this in an appearance way (or do I), Eddie is one of the ugliest athlete's I have ever met.
When Julian Crabtree successfully swam the Channel as part of the A2A in 2007, as he swam back from the French coast towards the boat after swimming for over 14 hours, when the pilot realized that some rope had become tangled in the boat's prop. This meant that unless it was cut free, the boat would have to be towed into Calais by the French authorities and would cost over £2000 in recovery fees. Suffering from extreme exhaustion and hypothermia, before even touching the boat after his mammoth swim, Julian took a knife, dived underneath the boat in the darkness and cut the boat free. There aren't many people in the world that I could say would definitely do that, probably around 5 people. Julian trained for 2 years to attempt the A2A is 2005, then only a few weeks before the event suffered a nasty injury which prevented him from starting. He trained for another year, and then only a few weeks before his 2006 attempt caught a nasty illness which prevented him from starting. He then trained for another year and after only a few miles of running from London, picked up another injury which led him to walk most of the run. After limping into Dover some 29 hours later, he went to bed for a few hours, started his swim on the less favourable spring tide and powered his way to a successful channel crossing and then became only the 3rd person in history at that time to complete the A2A. I have the most amount of respect for Julian, a truly amazing athlete. And while I think of it, only 3 months before his successful challenge, he joined Eddie and I as a team competing together on an ultra distance triathlon Wales. After receiving a cortisone injection in his back he retired during the bike stage. How can a person suffer 2 years of A2A disappointment, then pull out of a race due to injury only 3 months before his next A2A and then romp to victory in Paris. Enduroman No 3 did just that.
The successful A2A athlete needs to be good, bad and ugly. They need to have the potential to be good. Not at the Ironman (this is common mistake, Ironman fitness has completely no relation to the A2A), but at the A2A. They need to bad and have the arrogance to know that they are going to be successful and they don't mind letting others know about it. And most of all, they need to be ugly.
The biggest mistake we have noticed is that people think that it is all about swimming the channel. Of course this is the crooks of the matter. But the Enduroman Arch to Arc is all about running 87 miles, and then be in a condition strong enough to then swim the English Channel only a few hours later. These are facts. Let's face it... if you train intelligently for the run and the swim but you haven't been on your bike since you were 10 years old then pending completion of the channel you are still going to finish the event. A £5K bike isn't going to help you one little bit, unless of course, you are still chasing the record when you arrive in Calais.