© Remy Whiting/220 Triathlon

When she’s not indulging her passion for open water swimming or running trails, today’s guest, Helen Webster, can be found interviewing the world’s top triathletes and testing the latest, greatest gear through her job as editor of 220 Triathlon, the UK’s biggest triathlon magazine.

With plenty of impressive open water swimming events under her belt (not to mention marathons, triathlons and some of the world’s toughest swimruns) you’d be forgiven for thinking that Helen’s enjoyed a life-long passion for endurance sport, but this couldn’t be further from the truth as she reveals in our Q&A. Plus, find out which kit she rates and what’s on her event bucket list.

©swissultra

Claire Smith likes to test her limits. Her interest in pushing the boundaries of Iron distance triathlon started a decade ago and has led the Brutal Events founder to take on the kind of next-level challenge which finishes with a 262-mile run. Yep, last year Claire completed the ultimate endurance test: the swissultra Deca triathlon. That’s ten times the full ironman triathlon distance: swimming 24 miles, then cycling 1120 miles, and finally (how?) running 262 miles. Continuously.

The Deca triathlon is a sanity-questioning distance. So why did she do it? How did she do it? And why is she planning to be the first British woman to complete what she considers to be the toughest of the Deca challenges, the one-day Deca (more below), in November? I quiz the 43-year-old self-titled ‘back of the pack plodder’ to find out.

If you’re into triathlon you’ll probably recognise Heather Fell, one half of the Global Triathlon Network (GTN) presenting team. A Modern Pentathlon Olympic silver medallist and former world number one, Heather retired from elite sport in 2014 and now fronts GTN, bringing us tip-filled videos about swim-bike-run. Oh, and last year she completed an Ironman triathlon, in Kona no less.

Here, Heather runs through what a typical day working for GTN includes. Hint: It’s not all riding bikes…

Photo Credit: www.thatcameraman.com

After knee surgery stalled her successful GB 1500m track career, Emma Pallant made the switch to multisport endurance events and hasn’t looked back. A duathlon World Champion in 2015 and 2016, Emma added aquathlon World Champion to her title list this year and topped a season of triathlon podiums by taking silver at this year’s 70.3 Triathlon World Championship.

Here, the 28-year-old Team Dillon athlete and coach talks about bike spills, getting dropped by ‘picnic goers’ and setting 2018 Ironman goals.

Taking a world champion title at elite level triathlon is an incredible, career-defining achievement. But winning the title of World Champion across three triathlon disciplines? Now that’s extraordinary. Enter Flora Duffy, freshly crowned two-time ITU World Champion, ITU Cross triathlon World Champion, XTERRA World Champion, and last year the first woman to achieve the trio of world titles in one racing year.

Here, the almost-30-year-old Bermudan, who splits her time between Boulder, Colorado and Stellenboch, South Africa, talks about training, 2018 goals and the challenge of fitting XTERRA triathlon training into an already jam-packed ITU schedule.

Three races, three adventures, three seasons. Welcome to the Arctic Triple. Set in Lofoten, an archipelago of islands in Norway’s Arctic Circle, this multidiscipline threesome of events includes skimo (ski mountaineering), ultra-running and triathlon. Do an event individually or nail all three within a year to earn yourself bragging rights of completing the Arctic Triple. (Oh and a bronze, silver and gold award, depending on which distance you choose.)

Tell you more? Oh, go on then.