The inspirational Billy Monger has spoken out on his incredible record-breaking effort at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona last year.
Race car driver Monger took on triathlon’s toughest challenge as an IRONMAN Ambassador Athlete to raise money for the UK charity Comic Relief, setting his sights on breaking the record for a double amputee on prosthetic legs in the ultimate swim, bike, run race over 140.6miles.
Monger had both his legs amputated after a near-fatal race crash in 2017, but refused to let that hold him back. And not only did he break the record, but he smashed it by over two hours, completing the gruelling course in a time of 14:23:56.
Now four months on from that sweltering hot day in Hawaii, the Formula 1 TV presenter and personality has revealed the toughest part of his record-breaking race.
“Low on energy”
Since his crash in 2017, Monger has shown remarkable spirit to continue pushing his limits in sport.
He was racing within a year of his crash before picking up endurance sports, raising £3 million for charity in 2021 when he walked, cycled and kayaked 140 miles across England in four days.
Then in 2024 he took on one of his most physically demanding challenges yet by targeting a record-breaking time at Kona, tackling the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile cycle and full marathon that makes up a full IRONMAN – and it was the last section which he says pushed him to his limit.
“Definitely the marathon at the end,” Monger said when asked what the toughest part of his IRONMAN was in a social media Q&A.
“By the time I started that marathon, I was roughly around nine hours of exercise into the day; just over an hour in the water, seven and a half hours on the bike.
“So at that point your body is pretty low on energy it’s fair to say.”
Musical challenges
Learning how to manage his fitness over the 140.6 miles of an IRONMAN wasn’t the only challenge Monger faced when training for Kona, as early on in his training he knew he’d have to adapt to abide by one of IRONMAN’s strict rules.
“With an IRONMAN you can’t listen to music,” Monger said when asked what his favourite type was.
“Something that I integrated into my training quite early on was to not put headphones in and listen to music, and I think that really helped me to be honest.
“Throughout training I’ve learned to be comfortable with me, myself and my own thoughts and not having that distraction of music.
“I think that made a real difference to me and keeping focussed.”
Not ruling out Paralympics bid
With experience in swimming, biking and running plus his career as a successful Formula 3 and Formula 4 driver, Monger has shown he is more than capable of competing at an elite level in sport – so what of a possible bid to compete in paratriathlon at the Paralympics?
“I guess I’d never say never,” Monger admitted.
“But doing that in a Paralympics setting, it’s almost like a completely different sport even though you’re doing swim, bike and run as well because it’s short, it’s sharp and it’s intense.
“It definitely intrigues me, doing paratriathlon and competing for Team GB.
“Just being able to represent your country is something really special.”
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