Ross Edgley recently did a marathon pulling a 1.4 tonne MINI Countryman around and around the Silverstone Race Circuit in the UK. Edgley is sports scientist and founder of The Protein Works (a sports nutrition company), a fitness expert and rather strong…
At 1am on Friday the 22 January 2016 he began the 42.2km feat that ultimately took him 19 hours, 36 minutes and 43 seconds to complete. Ross spent eight months training for up to 14 hours a day for the #WorldsStrongestMarathon.
Why did he take on this insane task?
It wasn’t just to show off some muscle. Speaking to MailOnline he explained, ‘Basically in 2015 – after a series of unfortunate events involving some close friends of mine – the monthly charity donations I usually make no longer seemed enough.’
Ross chose to do this ‘never been done before’ task to raise money for four charities, namely the Teenage Cancer Trust, Children With Cancer, SportsAid and United Through Sport . He raised over £2000 (R42 793).
This man did a #marathon while pulling a MINIhttps://t.co/CIhU44h6WX
via @redbull#WorldsStrongestMarathon pic.twitter.com/pCe1qGfgyM
— AdventureN (@AdventureNcom) March 25, 2016
Pulling a MINI Countryman around @SilverstoneUK in 19 hrs and 36 mins! Congrats @RossEdgley #WorldsStrongestMarathon pic.twitter.com/4kntyiY31i
— MINI UK (@MINIUK) January 25, 2016
When interviewed by Phillippa Stewart for Red Bull, Ross was asked if he had any experience in this kind of challenge. His response:
‘I used to play water polo and swim for Great Britain but I’m built like a hobbit! I’m 5ft10 on a good day so my coach was like: “Look Ross, unless you grow another foot you’re not going to the Olympics” – which was fair enough! I started weight training because I needed to get a little bit bigger for water polo.
Now, at the grand old age of 30, I’ve long hung up my Speedos and wondered what else is there to do? I’ve always been quite strong but also because of my swimming background I’ve got quite good endurance so I thought it would be cool to try and fuse the two.’