Cycle 850km half the length of Thailand 
Row 500km from Bangkok to Koh Samui
Run 55km around Koh Samui
“Welcome to the THAIathalon. Like a triathlon, but much cooler (oh, and it’s in Thailand, if you didn’t get that by now too).
We’ll be covering half of Thailand. Human-powered.
But, unlike a normal TRIathalon, we’re swapping out the swim for a row. But not a ‘let’s go for a little kayak on the river’ kinda row.
More like let’s row across a part of the ocean that’s never been rowed across, for about a week, 2 hours rowing, 2 hours resting, 24 hours a day’ kinda row.
But before the row, we have 850km to cycle. From the tip of Thailand, to Bangkok. That’s a 6 day ride. Each night we’ll reconvene in a hotel to recover, see to our wounds, eat and get ready for the next day.
After the cycle, then the row, we reach the beautiful island of Koh Samui. Here, after a night’s sleep, we’ll finish the first ever THAIathalon with an ultra-marathon. 55km around Koh Samui.
And so it’s done. Guaranteed World Record as it’s never been done!
Everyone is welcome. Gender, sexuality, age. You just have to be ready to push yourself.
Please note though, This adventure is not for the light hearted. It’s brutal. Expensive. Takes months of training. Will hurt a lot. You’ll push pretty much every part of your body, especially your mind to the point of quitting. Probably on a daily basis. And when that’s done. You’ll still have an ultra marathon to run.
So why do it? Well, if you have to ask that, it’s probably not quite for you. This one is for the dreamers, the people who believe that you have to push yourself to know yourself. The weird part of society who believe life is too short for another 2 week break in Spain, or Cancun for the yearly holiday.
You want scars, mental and physical. You want to callus your mind. You want to feel alive. And you want to swap stories with other adventurers of the same mindset. And tell your grandkids about it in years to come. This one is for you.
First, to promote carbon-neutral travel. Our planet is hurting, so to show another way to travel, one where we get to see beautiful sites, eat delicious food, and promote a healthy life without the need for flights.
Secondly, life is short! Let’s have an adventure.
A REAL adventure. That THAIathalon is as real as it gets.
How does it all work? Well, that’s a good question. First of all, this has never been done before. So, bear with me. This is how I see it panning out:
I put together a team who are willing to trust me to pull this off. That’s the hard bit. The team should consist of beasts who are open to suffering, pushing themselves and having a bit of craic along the way. These things don’t come cheap, so the spots are priced at $15k a head (the ocean rowing boats are expensive!). Once we have a minimum of 4 people together, we can purchase the boat and lock in the dates.
Once the dates are confirmed, it’ll work like this. Fly to Bangkok to meet me and Billy. Once there, almost everything will be down to us. We’ll do some health and safety on the ocean rowing boat for 2 days, work out how to use the thing. Then we’ll fly north, to Chiang Rai.
A quick drive to the Golden Triangle and our bikes will be ready to start these epic adventure (I can supply bikes, or you can bring your own).
Pricing: $15K USD a head. TBC.
Duration: 21 days
Dates: Late 2022 or Summer 2023. TBC.
Numbers: 5 (or potentially 10) spots available. Minus 1 (me!).
If you’ve been recommended this adventure from a friend who thinks you’re an idiot and that you may like this kind of holiday/punishment, then you’ll have no idea who I am, and if this can really happen. I hope I can convince you that it can!
First of all, I’m no athlete. Just a normal guy who wants to fill my life with as much adventure as possible. I spent 2007-2017 on a mission to be the first Irish person to visit every country in the world.
Since then, I’ve been trying to become the first person in history to ‘complete the world’. That is every country, north pole, south pole and the 7 summits (highest mountain on every continent). I’m slowly chipping away at that, and hopefully will finish soon.
In the meantime, I’ve been running marathons at the North Pole, ultramarathons through the sahara, rowing across the Atlantic and building schools, playgrounds, clinics etc with our non-profit Mudita Adventures, whilst also organisinig tours that you don’t normally see in G Adventure brochures to Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Mauritania etc.
I’ve been based in Thailand for over 10 years, and have dreamt up the idea of the THAIathalon whilst on my ocean row. So here we are.
Billy Taylor, my skipper from my ocean row, and founder of Monkey Fist, is one of the most experienced ocean rowers in the world. He’ll be with us hopefully for the whole event, but at the very least for the row section. The cycle and the run are the easy bits, the logistics of the boat and the actual row are the tricky bits. Hence Billy being in charge of that, not me! He has rowed the Indian ocean, Atlantic Ocean (twice!), and Pacific Ocean. We’re in safe hands.