‘I wish that I had discovered this side of me earlier': Spencer Matthews on resilience, addiction and his new Project 7 endurance challenge

Independent

2 days ago

Having smashed through the intimidating feat of 30 marathons across the Jordanian desert in 30 days, broadcaster and CleanCo founder Spencer Matthews is now preparing for his 'Project 7' challenge – a beast of his own invention, which will see him complete seven full-distance Ironman-style triathlons on seven continents back to back.
'I've got an addictive personality,' Matthews tells me. 'Only a few years ago now, running 5k would have been a serious problem for me. I wish that I had discovered this side of me earlier because I used to live with lots of boundaries. I can't start a business – I don't know how. I can't run a marathon – it's too far. I can't lift heavy weights – I'm not strong. All these things I have found to be untrue when you lift the lid on what's possible. Ultimately, if other people can do it, then there's a strong chance that you can also do it.'
Each leg of the 23-day Project 7 challenge consists of a 3.8km swim followed by a 180km bike ride and topped off with a full marathon – 42.2 km. Matthews will begin in South America then move through North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa, finishing up in Antarctica. Where, he tells me, icy sub-zero waters populated by hulking leopard seals on the hunt for penguins will provide an intimidating setting for the final push.
'I had this nightmare – I actually woke up in a cold fit. This leopard seal basically took me and then dragged me underwater, and we were just going deeper and deeper. So hopefully that's not some premonition,' he says, surprisingly calmly.
But little is being left to chance in this challenge. Matthews is confident of that. he says: 'There won't be a single stone left unturned with how we approach this style of challenge. Good preparation is the antithesis of jeopardy – our job is to try to limit the amount of jeopardy that we come up against. It changes the nature of the challenge, though, being as prepared as we will be, because there's something really interesting about your personal journey when you're underprepared.
'For example, my marathon saga was essentially a punishment for my drinking. At the time, I decided that I was going to stop drinking, and I hit what some might call rock bottom, and I signed up for the marathons and flew out to the middle of the desert to essentially punish myself and teach myself a lesson. It was a cathartic experience and there were moments of extreme pain followed by moments of elation and joy, because it was an unknown. We're not going to run that risk for this and I think we owe it to James' Place to be prepared and turn up ready.'
This challenge is part of Matthews' mission to show himself, and others that human performance might well be limitless, but it also seeks to raise funds for James' Place, a UK charity focused on male suicide prevention and mental health support.
Matthews says: 'They do critical work in male suicide prevention, which is a very serious problem in the UK. A person takes their own life roughly every hour in the UK, with about three quarters of them being men. I think men at the moment are facing all kinds of complications, really. But this suicide number, this suicide rate is alarmingly high and James' Place do incredible work to save men who are in crisis.'
Becoming an iron man
I ask Matthews how he plans to prepare his body for such a gruelling challenge, particularly given that he's never done one triathlon challenge, let alone seven triathlons in succession. He tells me, 'It's honestly not as wild as you might assume.'
'I ran over 100 kilometres last week, which obviously is quite a long week, but not often more than an hour at a time. If you run for an hour every day, even slowly, if you do that repeatedly over time, you're going to be an incredibly fit person. I think getting out there and just putting in the steps and the time is really important.'
'And I don't have an extraordinary amount of spare time,' he says. 'I have three children, a wife and two businesses so typically, I get my training done before breakfast. I'll be out the door, running, training, lifting, cycling, swimming. Sometimes I do go for a three or four hour runs on weekends or days that I've got less on. Plenty of distance in the legs and just really believing in yourself – that's the barrier to entry for larger challenges such as these.'
Matthews has found support in unlikely places during his journey. A dedicated team will accompany him on the Project 7 challenge, including health and logistics expert Chris Taylor. But on the ground in the UK, his training is spurred on by the communities he's attempted to build around his CleanCo alcohol-free brand, his Untapped podcast and around events like run clubs.
'I personally find the sporting community, the running community, in particular, the best social community I've ever been a part of. I love running with strangers. With run clubs that we've done 400 people will turn up. And we just did it slowly, really inclusive, and just had conversations with a bunch of people who all had their reasons.'
'I think the biggest lessons that I've learned are that consistency is the leading factor in my health journey. If you consistently show up and behave in a way that you admire and you want to be, one day you're going to wake up as that person. At some point you just wake up and realise that you're nothing to do with the person that used to be. I eliminated a lot of doubt and self loathing and turned it into pride, and it kind of opened up a whole world of 'what's next and what's possible?''
Mind over matter
Inspired by Russ Cook – the endurance athlete known by his online moniker Hardest Geezer – and his race around Africa, Matthews decided to carve out a similar challenge for himself, which is how his 30 marathons in 30 days adventure came into being.
'I couldn't understand how this guy who wasn't a big runner before, was cranking out marathon after marathon every single day. And I instantly loved it, right? I was watching his content every day, and at the time, I was considering doing another ultra. People who have done ultras will understand that they pull you back in. You get to the finish line, you promise yourself that you'll never do that ever again and it's only a matter of months before you want to do it again.'
'I was looking for another event, and then I saw Cook doing hundreds of miles in a row, and I thought, how many can I do in a row? Guinness World Records said that 30 consecutive [marathons] would, in fact, be a world record, and the idea of becoming a world record holding athlete of any kind became this unthinkable target I was all of a sudden obsessed with.'
'It ended up being easily the most transformative period and the most meaningful time in my life,' says Matthews. He stops briefly and reflects before continuing, 'aside from having beautiful children with the love of my life. But just in terms of my own personal development. It was incredibly useful, the kind of strain of it all, but also the breaking down of the barriers and boundaries. I thought there must be such an exciting and interesting opportunity here for normal people like me to understand that these seemingly impossible things are possible.'
The Untapped podcast was born out of this curiosity as Matthews decided to drop his comedy podcasts and focus solely on stories of human potential, adversity and success. 'Basically I interview incredible athletes now who achieve extraordinary things and tap into their daily habits and routines. And I've just become obsessed with performance,' he says.
So how can someone who's never run a marathon take on one for the first time? Or take on seven triathlons – including an official Ironman competition in Sacramento – in a row, when few people could manage just one? Matthews explains that there are a few rules worth sticking to that apply to everyone. One of them is cutting out booze – something that he's often asked to discuss after launching CleanCo. He's careful with his words here and tells me he doesn't identify with the binary way alcohol and addiction are often discussed. His view is straightforward though – we all have an idea of who we want to be.
'Eliminating alcohol for periods of time is probably the most helpful thing you can do in my book. I'm not preaching or having a go at anybody that drinks recreationally. But for me, the difference between having a few drinks and not drinking is enormous. I used to see taking periods of abstinence as a sacrifice, so I'd say, 'I'm not going to drink for this month in order to feel better'. And now my whole ethos around it is the complete opposite. I can drink whenever I feel like drinking, but I choose not to, because it will hinder who I am and my performance. I've become interested in health and physicality and wellness as part of my very being. So smoking, drinking, late nights don't really fit into what I want to be.'
Reality TV to reality check
I ask Matthews about the exact training and recovery protocol as well as the risks involved in taking on seven triathlons over seven continents. Jeopardy is a word that comes up a lot because on seven continents, weather conditions vary, the body is put through its paces running, swimming and cycling over varied terrain and in some cases, wild animals are abundant.
'I really wanted to go to India for this one, until I interviewed Forrest Galante and he was telling me that there are wild leopards that occasionally pick people off, so we're going to try and avoid dangerous animals where we can. Chris Taylor is my safety blanket and logistical go-to and I place pretty much all of my trust in him. He said to me, 'if you do everything I tell you to do in the way that I tell you to do it, you'll achieve the goal' and it ended up being true, so I trust him implicitly with this challenge as well. I liked him from the moment we met and I knew we'd have all the fun and build interesting challenges together. He probably didn't initially – he actually placed bets that I would fail!'
The challenge itself presents several situations that could be life-threatening. Full immersion in icy open waters for far longer than one might sit in an ice bath, full-body swelling after completing each triathlon followed by hours of air travel and the risk of accidents on the road. The planning requires a meticulous edge and Matthews tells me he'll be in the air for over 100 hours in 22 days.
'There's going to be full immersion in ice water. which I have to say I am concerned about. We'll have the correct kit, of course. But even then, you're going to be very cold – it's minus two degrees in the water,' says Matthews. 'I'm not racing to the point where having a five minute break is going to make a difference on the record test. But having a five minute break in Antarctica could be the difference between life or death. If you were to end up hypothermic from the exhaustion, the inflammation, it's going to be really difficult to recover from that. I saw a video of some bloke pouring a Coca Cola can in Antarctica and it froze before it hit the ground. Recovering well mid challenge is something that I think it's going to be difficult to manage. You have to stay living.'
'We're going to try and board flights as soon as we finish so that I can swell once and not twice. I've never done an Ironman before but apparently the body swells in the recovery process. But if we manage the time that we're in the air, then that will be helpful. There's a lot of flying, like, a lot of flying. Some of the flights are 12 hours but it'll give me time to read and I'll be able to walk through security quickly because I won't have any kids with me. I imagine it'll be fun and challenging and equal measure.' he says, explaining that the airport experience with his family often looks very different, trying to wrangle kids and their luggage.
No man is an island
As we move onto the topic of family, Matthews explains that feeling drawn to endurance challenges is somewhat in his blood. But it's also a direct result of the environments he's been exposed to. From his time on Made In Chelsea to the present day, he's considered the importance of male role models and how needed they are, particularly in digital spaces.
'I really want my kids to grow up in an environment where they see that kind of anything possible. I had my older brother for that. We've always been an adventurous family and as a kid, I remember being really inspired by him. So I'd love my kids to at least understand that they can tap into themselves, instead of being told that they can't do things.'
'I feel that men, young men particularly, are in a bit of a tricky spot nowadays. I think a lot of really influential voices are wrong and quite toxic. As a father of two boys, I'm terrified of them exploring social media and coming across these toxically masculine voices that tell them that they're worthless if they're not a certain way. And I think that having had a journey myself through masculinity, setting an example and working with a charity like James' Place is really important to me.
'They do extraordinary work preventing men from taking their lives and aim to see suicidal men in crisis within two working days. The NHS are incredible, but that's not a service that they can offer. The money that we raise from Project 7 can be used in real time to save lives in real time.'
Matthews shares that fundraising has already begun. After the challenge begins in Rio on 15th October supporters can continue to donate to the charity and follow along on the journey as he runs, swims and cycles in Sacramento, California and then in London, Dubai, Perth and Cape Town before crossing the finish line in Antarctica, setting a world record in the process.