Pals set to complete 'ultimate triathlon' with 3,000 mile cross-Atlantic row

Two friends are set to complete the “ultimate triathlon” when they row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in what is known as “the world’s toughest row”.

Paddy Montgomery and Seamus Crawford, both 30, have already cycled across Europe, setting a course record in 2015’s Race Across Europe event, and run across the Sahara in the notorious Marathon Des Sables.

They are now taking on the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge which will see them row 3,000 nautical miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua.

The pals, who met at Durham University, said the idea to tackle all three challenges started out as an alcohol-fuelled bet, but quickly turned into a serious venture.

With the team name Saddle Sand Sea, they are raising money for two local charities – The Prostate Project and children’s hospice charity Shooting Star Chase.

Seamus, a financial analyst from Taunton, Somerset, said: “We were at university in our last year and we heard a story about people starting to do this mad rowing challenge.

“We played a bit of sport at uni, and in our youth, and as we moved to London we got to the stage where we wanted to do something and to support charities.”

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He added: “We talked about doing the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge mainly in the pub rather than on a serious level, then the conversation started to progress.

“This is the final piece in the puzzle of an ultimate triathlon. If we were going to do something crazy for charity, we wanted to go all-out. As two normal blokes, we would quite like to do something a bit mad and extraordinary outside our normal lives.”

The pair admit that neither of them are elite athletes, with Seamus describing himself as “a giraffe on a bike” and Paddy admitting dealing with the extreme heat during the Marathon Des Sables was particularly difficult for someone who “would sweat in the Arctic”.

Paddy, a fund placement agent from Crondall in Hampshire, said: “Our key thing is we are just two normal blokes, we are not elite athletes.

“If you put your mind to anything, it sounds like a cliche, but you just have to go and do it. The moment you tell your friends about these things, you can’t back out.

“You don’t have to be a super Usain Bolt-type character, you just go and do it.”

The pair will be among around 30 teams from across the world competing in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, which starts on December 13.