The Enduroman Arch 2 Arc Triathlon is an extreme challenge that starts from the Marble Arch in London. Athletes then run 128.7 km to Dover, then swim 33.5 km from Dover across the English Channel to the French shore, followed by cycling 290 km to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

An English Channel crossing is tough enough, but when it is sandwiched between a 128.7 km run and a 290 km bike ride, all kinds of obstacles and challenges can appear. After the run, then the triathletes face the uncertainties of the weather, winds, and tides across the English Channel. There can be delays in Dover up to 4 days (e.g., as with Rachel Hessom who had to wait for over 97 hours in her T1 (run-to-bike transition) due to weather. Those delays are built into the athlete’s total time. Some athletes are luckier (?) and their T1 transition time is as little as 5 hours. But after a 128.7 km run from London, those 5 hours do not provide much of a respite.

See the different run, swim, and biking times here.

While triathletes are known for wearing a wetsuit, there are some Arch 2 Arc athletes who crossed the English Channel under standard channel swimming rules. Of the 73 successful finishers, 8 individuals have completed the Enduroman Arch 2 Arc (A2A) challenge without a wetsuit for their Channel crossing:

• #11 Mark Bayliss of Great Britain with a swim time of 11 hours 48 minutes and a total time of 73 hours 39 minutes on 10 September 2012
• #12 Rachel Hessom of Great Britain with a swim time of 14 hours 13 minutes and a total time of 167 hours 7 minutes on 14 July 2013 [shown above on left]
• #27 Rachel Hill of Great Britain with a swim time of 17 hours 32 minutes and a total time of 88 hours 30 minutes on 12 August 2017
• #35 Laura Marshall of Australia with a swim time of 15 hours 35 minutes and a total time of 81 hours 28 minutes on 2 October 2018
• #41 Chris Leek of Great Britain with a swim time of 15 hours 28 minutes and a total time of 69 hours 29 minutes on 2 August 2019
• #49 Jenny Smith of the USA with a swim time of 14 hours 3 minutes and a total time of 72 hours 26 minutes on 5 August 2022 [shown above on right]
• #60 Paul Robinson of the UK with a swim time of 14 hours 52 minutes and a total time of 67 hours 3 minutes on 12 September 2024
• #69 Sean Bannon of the USA with a swim time of 12 hours 39 minutes and a total time of 64 hours 42 minutes on 20 July 2026

Jenny Smith did her channel crossing without a wetsuit as one might expect.

Smith had completed the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming with an 11 hour 13 minute crossing in 2017, prepared at the 2017 Cork Distance Week in Ireland, raced several Swim The Suck races, swam across Lake Titicaca in Peru and Lake Tahoe, did the 25 km Border Buster in Lake Memphremagog between the USA and Canada, completed a 35 km crossing of the North Channel from Northern Ireland to Scotland in 13 hours 6 minutes, a crossing from Anacapa Island, the 19.3 km Swim Around Charleston in South Carolina, the 20.1 km Swim Around Key West in Florida, and the 38.6 km Tampa Bay Marathon Swim in 12 hours 34 minutes.

Neoprene is definitely not in her wardrobe.

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