Adam Peaty: “I’ve never had to fight for two and a half hours before”

Pulling on a wetsuit and goggles for something a little different, we caught up with double-Olympic gold medalist Adam Peaty as he finished the T100 London triathlon. Expect to hear about mistakes on the bike, the euphoria of finishing and how his races only usually last minutes, not hours…

It’s not every day you turn up at a triathlon and find yourself facing a double-Olympian as you get into the water. So we have some respect for age-groupers at the T100 race in London on Sunday, who lined up alongside Olympic gold-medalist Adam Peaty OBE.

Peaty won the gold medal in the 100-metre breaststroke at the 2016 Summer Olympics, the first by a male British swimmer in 24 years, and retained the title at the 2020 Summer Olympics in 2021, making him the first British swimmer ever to retain an Olympic title.

Taking on triathlon is something a little different, though. “I’ve honestly never experienced anything like it, because it was so difficult!” he said after the race. “It was me versus me. I made a few mistakes.”

“My bike chain fell off so I’m riding thinking I’ve got to catch up! My legs feel okay, but I feel a bit sore – and then that whole run was hard. I’ve never done a 10k race before let alone a triathlon 10k. But I think anyone out there that wants to challenge themselves can, just do it.”

Racing for charity

Peaty was racing as part of Team Ramsay, raising money for the The Ramsay Foundation and Great Ormond Street Hospital (he is engaged to Holly Ramsay). Continuing to share his experience, he described the last part of the run as especially tough

“You’re fighting yourself on that last 5k… I know it’s only 5k, but it’s 5k in the depths and the trenches if you’ve never done it! Yes, I’m an Olympian, but I’ve barely ran my whole life, so I knew that was always going to be a weakness.

“And I was just like, you know what, just keep going. Step by step. Fuel when you need to fuel – and you know, it’s a great cause. Obviously I was raising money for the Gordon and Tana Ramsay Foundation for Great Ormond Street as well. So that kept me going. And obviously seeing everyone else supporting out there. So you know, it’s good. And whether you were doing the 100k or the Olympic today, everyone’s behind each other.  It was great. Absolutely incredible. 

Managing adrenaline

“I tried to do a Tommy Fury in the last 100 metres! But I was euphoric because I just finished and I was like, that was the hardest thing I’ve done in a single moment in my life.

“Yes, I’ve done the training. Yes, I’ve done races under a minute. But I’ve never had to battle for two and a half hours and find different strategies that I’m not used to. Also I had to get used to the adrenaline, control the adrenaline because I think I used 70% of my adrenaline that first 500m in the swim!

I want to do half Ironman one day. I want to do a full Ironman one day… So there are lots of these to come. I think T100 is a great concept. And it’s making triathlon accessible to so many people.”

So how was it racing as part of Team Ramsay? “God, I felt a lot of pressure. When my pace fell off in that last few kilometres, I was like, ‘shit, they’re going to catch me’! So that kept me going. Just seeing them kept me going though”.

Talking of adrenaline, how did Adam do? Well, his times were solid for an Olympic distance, finishing in 02:34:37. As you’d expect his swim was strong though, finishing the 1500m in a time of 00:19:44, a pace of 01:19/100m!

Thank you to T100 Triathlon for the interview with Adam Peaty. All images: T100.