A 33km swim, 12,000km cycle and 900km run before ascending Everest: how I completed the ‘world’s longest triathlon’

“It’s been a crazy few months. I’m in shock, a bit of disbelief it’s over, and the body is feeling it, but not as bad as it could have been.” Mitch Hutchcraft is propped up on the bed of his hotel room in Kathmandu enjoying a hard-earned rest. 

Right now his priorities are to get home to Peterborough to have a roast dinner, and see Buddy, his beloved golden retriever. The 31-year-old former Royal Marine has just completed what press reports are dubbing the “longest triathlon in the world” – a mammoth 240-day challenge that started with a Channel swim from Dover, included a 12,000km / 7456mi cycle through 19 countries to India, before a 900km / 559mi run to Kathmandu and a 360km / 224mi hike to Everest base camp and then a successful ascent of the summit. 

Mitch isn’t bothered about the technicalities of whether it’s actually the longest tri, but does say Guinness have been in touch in the past couple of days because they’re sure it’s the “longest non-motorised climb of Mount Everest”. Starting from a beach in Calais, it’s certainly not the typical route. 

While we’ll get to the ‘how’ he did it, which features a mixture of extreme preparation, bolting from stray dogs and camping out in converted London buses, let’s first tackle the ‘why.’ 

Mitch’s motivation

“First and foremost, anyone who tells you they’re doing it for other people is lying,” Hutchcraft says with a healthy dollop of self-awareness.

“Ever since I was a kid I just wanted to see how far I could push myself, and I love getting uncomfortable, pushing my body and mind to the limits.” 

In addition, the loss of his father, Phil, who died when Mitch was a teenager, had a profound impact and became a motivating force. He adds: “It became a massive thing to make him proud and I love doing these big challenges and imagining him looking down on me.” 

Mitch was also raising funds for a London-based non-profit organisation, SavSim, who support military veterans. “They run two courses a year, at Whipsnade and London Zoo, using wildlife in nature to treat PTSD,” he explains.

“In addition, they use the skills of veterans who are transitioning out of the forces, sending them to places like Africa to train anti-poaching teams. So, the work is a mixture of wildlife conservation and mental health care.” 

And finally, as the challenge came to more public attention, Mitch was also inundated with messages of appreciation. “That’s become the other big why,” he continues. “I’ve had dozens of messages from people every day saying how much it’s helping them.

Climbing Everest isn’t to be under-estimated so Mitch trained in the Himalayas first. 

“It shows you don’t have to be some superhuman triathlete. It sounds crazy but genuinely I don’t consider myself an athlete. I’m a very bad runner and a very bad cyclist, and a very normal bloke. It’s 99% mindset and, if you believe, your body will follow.” 

The seeds of the idea 

Of course, the idea of the epic swim, bike, run, hike and climb first came into Mitch’s head in his natural habitat… in the middle of a seven-week Atlantic row.

Having left the marines in 2021, he was invited to join a four-man crew to travel from the Canary Islands to Barbados. It was a non-stop three hours on, three hours off demand that gave him ample opportunity to stare at the horizon and plot more extreme feats. 

Mitch figured an extreme challenge would take some extreme prep, so 2022 saw him purchase a bike, fly to Florida and pedal from east coast to west on a self- supported ride across eight US states, adding up to around 5,000km / 3,000mi. “That was me ticking the box for the cycle,” he shrugs. 

Mountaineering practice would also be useful, so the following year he headed to the eastern province of Koshi in the Himalayas to tackle Ama Dablam, a technical climb of almost 7,000m. “It’s like the Matterhorn but in the Himalayas,” he explains. “Harder than Everest, but a lot of people do it in preparation.”

Then there was the swimming. The shortest section in real time, but as anyone who has attempted a Channel swim knows, isn’t just a case of covering the 30km / 20mi-plus distance from Dover to Calais; the elements on the day have critical influence. 

“I’m a big swimmer, but I’d never swam competitively or much in open water,” Mitch explains. “But I quit work in February, six months before the expedition and from then on 95% of my training was swimming.”

That included a trip to Croatia with the experienced Red Top Swim crew, a well-trodden path for marathon swimmers, which culminates in a 6hr training swim, but there was also one final epic challenge before the main event.

“It was a bit too close to the start really,” Mitch admits, before explaining that in August last year, six weeks before he dove in at Dover, he first headed to the Lake District.

“I thought it’d be good training to swim the length of 11 lakes back to back – running in between! I started with Windermere and then ran to Coniston and it was around 64km [40mi] swimming and 112km [70mi] of running over the course of a week.” 

Buddy, as would become a common theme, was along for the fun too. As for any actual triathlon experience, that was limited. In fact, it only consisted of a DIY iron distance event in May last year that started in a lake near home in Peterborough, continued with a 180km / 112mi ride to London and then followed the exact route of the London marathon.

And yes, Buddy was there, on a paddleboard, then in a trailer and finally scurrying along the streets of the capital at Mitch’s side. “I love him so much and I wanted him to be part of this adventure,” Mitch says. 

“He was waiting for me on the beach when I swam the Channel and I knew the first stage across Europe to Budapest would be as safe as you can get, so I wanted him to be part of it, so he was with me for the first few thousand kilometres too.” 

Funding challenges

Funding the expedition, including capturing it on film in the hope of a forthcoming documentary, has provided the most stress. Having left the marines, Mitch was working as a bodyguard for a billionaire from Asia, flying around the world’s major cities, but while not as glamorous as it might sound, it was also not conducive to training. 

“Probably the worst job in the world if you actually want to train!” he confirms. “It was a month on, a month off, and the month on was eight 12hr shifts in a row, often in hotel rooms, then one day off and back into it. London, Tokyo, LA… I was constantly jetlagged.” 

Something had to give, the decision was made to quit work and his full-time role became training and trying to get sponsorship. Hundreds of emails and phone calls later and Mitch has raised around 10% of what he needed – enough to get started. 

He says more has trickled in since. “Raising funds has been the most stressful part, but hopefully now I’ve finished, a few more doors have been opened,” he says, putting the spend to date at around £100k.

Mitch also took the decision to take on cameraman Stan Gaskell, who also filmed Russ Cook, aka Hardest Geezer, running the length of Africa, as well as producer Molly McDonald, whose Blue Door production company is looking to deliver the final footage.

“It would have been much cheaper to do the original plan completely on my own, but I was so thankful to have Stan and Molly along and hopefully one day we’ll have a documentary.” 

But if the funding continues to be a challenge, it was the weather that almost finished it within the first 24hrs. 

“The Channel conditions were some of the worst of the entire season,” he says. “Thirteen boats left that morning and only two made it to France. I spent the last 5-6hrs trying not to drown, my shoulder seized up and I had tendonitis in the wrist, and it was hell for 5hr. Luckily, I had [boat captain] Nils, who was so calm.” 

Swim complete, the bike leg across Europe wasn’t short of dramas either. “From Bulgaria onwards I was chased by hundreds of stray dogs and nearly bitten so many times,” Mitch continues. “Probably the closest I came to dying was on the Turkish-Syrian border where I was chased by a giant mastiff on the road and a lorry had to swerve to avoid me.” 

A near miss of a different kind came when a friend drove an old school bus from London to Budapest to act as an auxiliary camper van, and to create space to sleep they needed to remove some of the rear seats. 

Mitch’s support crew took the bus to a local scrapyard, but a misunderstanding led to the owner pulling a magnum revolver on them. 

“They were nice guys and insistent on paying us for the seats,” he says. “To the point that they pulled out a revolver and said: ‘Take the money!’ It was kind of a joke, but it was still a loaded weapon.” 

He says he averaged 140km / 87mi a day for four months, cycling for five days straight and then resting for 24hr to stretch. After the bike leg finished in the east Indian coastal resort of Digha, one of the hardest parts of the challenge began.

“Going from a 12,000km [7456mi] bike ride to a 900km / 559mi ultra run was the biggest challenge physically,” he said. “I didn’t do any hiking or run training beforehand and had four months of just conditioning my body to cycling. The first two weeks were hell. I averaged 33km [21mi] a day the first week and was in bits. I got up to 38km [24mi] a day, with less pain. The whole point is that the body is strong and will condition, it’s an amazing thing.”

Another big and unique question was that after a 13,000km / 8,078mi triathlon, would the body be capable of climbing Mount Everest? “Luckily we’ve answered that now,” Mitch says.

“Everest was everything I hoped and dreamed it would be. When the sun came up near the south summit and you could see the curvature of the earth, it was incredible. 

“But I know how dangerous it is, too. It was 35mph winds at the top and we had to navigate around two bodies. It hit home that as much as this is a dream goal, the summit, as any mountaineer will tell you, is halfway, and it’s not done until you get down. It was a reminder of who is in charge.” 

Mitch also paid tribute to his two sherpas, Gelje, who was heading to the summit for the tenth time, and his nephew Phuri, who carried the oxygen up. While he says his time in the marines helped hone the mindset needed for such extreme adventure, you don’t have to be a forces veteran to take on your own challenge. 

“Believe in yourself, commit to it, and trust the body,” he says. “As long as the mind is sound, the body will follow. And don’t be disheartened by being told ‘No’. You’ll be told no 100 times before you get one yes.

Mitch’s highlights

 “As much as I knew it’d be amazing, my surprise was just how amazing humanity is. I travelled through 19 countries and was shown kindness in places you wouldn’t expect.

“The friendliest country by far was Iraq. I felt safer in Baghdad than London. My favourite place for natural beauty was Oman, and the best food was in Pakistan.” 

How to fuel a 240-day adventure 

“Mostly, it’s eat as much as you can as often as you can. I try to have mass gainers and protein shakes to get calories in as quickly as possible, but it’s never enough. “I knew I’d lose weight. I’m burning up to 6,000 calories every day for 7-8 months straight, so I was always in deficit, but hoped and prayed that the body would manage it. I’ve lost 16kg [35lbs] since the Channel swim.” 

Tale of the tape

Mitch left from Dover, England, on 15 September 2024, and swam 35km nonstop across the Channel, cycled over 12,000km through Europe and Asia to Digha in India; ran 900km to Kathmandu, Nepal, before trekking 360km to Everest base camp and successfully climbing the world’s highest peak. 

Project Limitless 

Mitch’s superhuman feat of endurance and resilience has been the result of years of planning. Molly McDonald, founder and producer of Blue Door Productions, had supported the challenge from the beginning, alongside full-time, on-the-ground shooting and editing by Stanley Gaskell. 

Molly added: “It’s been a long road since Mitch first pitched his dream to us. As a small team, without funding or a social following to support the expedition, we knew Project Limitless was a big risk, but we saw a real magic in who Mitch is and the message he wanted to share.

“Thanks to the incredible support of amazing partners – and a massive online community – that distant dream has become a reality.

“I’m incredibly proud of this adventure, though for Blue Door, the finish line is not the summit, but when we get our team back home safely.” 

Extreme swim prep

Mitch swam 64km in 11 lakes in the Lake District in preparation for the challenge. The 11 lakes were: • Windermere • Coniston Water • Rydal Water • Grasmere • Ullswater • Derwentwater • Bassenthwaite • Loweswater • Crummock Water • Buttermere • Wast Water

Mitch and Buddy’s fact files

Name	Mitch	Buddy
Age	31	3
Favourite food	Roast dinner	Chicken breast and doggy ice cream
Favourite discipline	Swimming	Swimming
Favourite experience	Meeting so many amazing amazing people and experiencing kindness I never knew existed.	Trying to keep up with dad when he let me run next to the bike.
Favourite country	Oman	Hungary