Join Lewis Cromey in 244 (2025) – an inspiring ultra triathlon documentary capturing his epic journey: a 5km open water swim, a 200-mile bike ride across Wales, and the ultimate test – the UTMB Ultra-Trail Snowdonia 55K. Witness the grit, endurance, and determination as Lewis takes on one of the UK’s toughest endurance challenges, all while raising money for Bristol Southmead Hospital Charity.
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Um, do you want to speak a little bit about the backstory behind the challenge this time around? Yeah. Okay. So, back in July last year, my my partner, she became very suddenly unwell um where her bowel ruptured and was rushed into surgery. had a subtotal callectomy. Um, and then because of everything that had leaked into her abdomen, was then extremely unwell with a massive infection. Spent a lot of time in ICU, she had seven surgeries in total. Spent the best part of 6 weeks in ICU and 3 months in Southwe Hospital. Um, and they, you know, saved her life multiple times. There were times we were called in because it wasn’t looking good for her. Um, so yeah, that that was what sort of inspired my wanting to give back to the hospital that had saved Lucy’s life. [Music] I started running back in about 2017 again after not having done anything for a while. Um, largely to get fitter and healthier and I ran the Bristol 10K to raise money for the British Liver Trust. Um after then I decided I didn’t really like running so I bought a bike a road bike and then started cycling a lot and then it was my mom one day said to me that she wanted to do a triathon so I said I’ll enter one with you. Um so I entered one in Paul’s head which was fairly local to us and she never entered it. So it’s about 13 days to go then. It is. Yeah. Two weeksish. Two weeks. Two weeks yesterday. It was. Yeah. That’s when the swim starts anyway. Yeah. The plan was over 4 days was to swim 5K to cycle for 200 miles to Lambberas, which is the start of Ultra Trail Snowdonia, and then run the 50k Ultra Trail Snowonia route. Perfect. Over four days. All over four days. Do you feel pretty ready for it? Um, I don’t think I’m ever going to feel ready for it. Yeah, I think it’s just going to be a case of get out there, just crack and uh see how it goes and just rip through it. Um, so yeah, I think that’s the plan for it. So, what are you doing today? Um, hopefully something above 30k in the hills in Breen to get some good elevation. and some good training in the last sort of big running session at least before before it all. That’s the plan for the day. Fortunately, I have a I have a coach um and he sets up my training plans according to my goal. So, we discussed what my plan was going to be and then we set up a training plan to to go through it. And it’s all about the sort of communive over a week space volume that you get in. So, and then it was just making sure I hit the key sessions each week. So, if I had to go for a really big hilly run, I went for a really big hilly run and just making the time to to do it. So, there were a lot of times where it was, you know, spending a lot of time running around or a lot of time cycling. That’s cool. Cool. Enjoy. See you over there. Yeah. See you in a few hours. See you later. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] So, how long have you got left? Um, probably 3 hours. Yeah, in the plan it was for 4 hours. I did want to try and tackle that marathon route, but it’s too hot to do that. Yeah, being sensible. So, I’m going to go up, follow the ridge line to Fanny Big, down Fanny Big, up Cribbon, down Cribbon, then up to Penny Fan, and go down. see how I feel at the car park whether I want to go back up again or not. Yeah, I think the plan. Nice. Yeah, that’s got warmer, doesn’t it? Yes. And it’s only probably going to get warmer. Yeah. So, it’s just when you’re going up hills, you just suffer going up the hill. It’s too hot. Yeah. See you in a bit. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] was where where does your drive come generally cuz like not everyone can just go can just condition themselves to do what you do. No, I don’t I don’t really know. I think um I think you saw I saw the the benefit of it through co and it helps me deal with mental stress and problems and you know we’ve all got I’m sure we’ve all got busy lives and a lot going on in our own lives and it’s just a way of me to get out of my own head and work through things in you know relatively healthy way. What’s going through your mind right now? I can’t wait to get in. Yeah. Yeah. It’s a nice day, isn’t it? Nice day. Nice day to get in the water. Do you know what temperature the water is? No, it’ be like 145, I guess, I reckon. So, it’ be all right. Midmay, isn’t it? So, yeah, it should should be okay. What was the plan for the swim? Just to get in the water and swim 5k. So where the swim was was in Fobster Key, there’s a big 750 m loop and the plan was just to do laps of that loop, but maybe do like three laps, get out, take some fuel on, get back in, do some more, and just go like that until you hit the 5k. That was the plan for it. How long roughly do you reckon it’s going to be? Um, over an hour and a half it’ll be of swimming. Yeah. Hopefully no more than two hours. But um yeah, should be enough swimming. Perfect. So, what’s that with your goggles? You got something on there. Oh, it’s um they’re form goggles, so it displays on display, which is pretty cool. So, it tells you should do ball. Yeah. And if I’m swimming in a straight line. Yeah. That’s the other thing. Yeah. It’s a bit more challenging about open water. Swimming in a straight line. Yeah. So, how are you feeling going into the swim? Uh, it’s the least confident one cuz it was the one I hadn’t really put the training in for. So, it was definitely the one that I was I would have got through it anyway. I would have just ground it out. But um it was the one I probably was the most not fearful of but almost knowing that it was going to probably be the most challenging one just because of lack of training. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] Heat [Music] up [Music] here. [Music] What are It’s like you swim and it’s [Music] how you feeling. Okay. That’s an hour in. Yeah. Hour to go. Yeah. So, what distance was that? Halfway. Yeah, two and a half. Just about two and a half. It was tough. Um certainly those last few laps they were they were tough. [Music] Done. Done. Done. How you feeling? Uh, tired. One event down. One event down. Just got to get on the bike tomorrow. Tomorrow and Friday. Only 200 miles. Yeah, only 200. But it wasn’t as bad as I I thought it was going to be. And it was a nice day. So that always helps. So that was a bit of a success really. Yeah. Yeah. Bought back. Yeah, it was. That was probably the most successful part of the whole thing was the swim. Looking forward to tomorrow. No. No, I’m joking. Yeah, it’ll be a good day. Weather’s looking good. Yeah, the wind’s not looking too bad. How long roughly is it tomorrow on the bike? At least 10 hours. 10 hours. At least. Yeah, maybe. Maybe a bit more. Just got to pace it right. I think tomorrow go too hard just cuz I’m feeling okay. Yeah, cuz we still got the uh got the ultra got the ultra to do here. That’s it. So, yeah. See how tomorrow goes. Yeah. Ready for it? as ready as I’m going to be. I think the point today it’s about 219 kilometers today. Um it’s where we stayed overnight and then leaves 110 tomorrow. So hopefully about 10 hours of cycling. So the plan was that we would cycle I would cycle to just south of the Snowonia National Park which was going to be about 220k. Um and then stop there overnight and then we’d cycle the remaining 100 110k the next day. Um that was the plan which we set out to to achieve. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I’ve just got to take it easy. Remember, it’s not a race. Just racing against myself. So, just uh enjoy it. Got nice weather. So, uh yeah. [Music] First couple of hours were fine. I was I was fine. I was happy on the bike. I was taking it easy. Just controlling the effort really cuz it’s a long way to go. So there’s no point going too hard. So, it’s a it was okay the first few hours. [Music] Once I’d gone over the seven bridge and into chapto and then out of chapto, I think at that point I started not feeling great. um this sickness type feelings started coming over me and it was then more challenging to take on the fuel that I needed to um even sort of drinking was difficult and would make me feel sick. So that at that sort of point it was so that was only what 2 hours in to the cycle and it was becoming quite hard at that point. How you finding it? Uh pretty brutal. Yeah. Yeah. Feeling sick my last two hours. Nice. So uh it’s going well. Yeah. How many miles you done so far? 90 km. 90 km. Yeah. 91. What were you feeling during that stop in Ark Valley? I was just feeling unwell. Um I knew that I wanted to like I wanted to eat but I couldn’t because it I was just feeling so sick. So try to have a coffee, refill the bottles that I emptied just with water because that might be easier for me to take on than than anything that’s carb loaded and or any of the electrolyte stuff that I I had. So plan was just then to take on some water, have a coffee, and see where I was in a few hours time. You enjoying it? It’s been all right. thin it. It’s been all right. What do you think that’s for then? Just not enough. Um, it’ll be I don’t know. Could be the temperature. Yeah. Could be the food that I’m trying to eat. Yeah. Just being too sweet. Don’t know. Could be a load of different things. Did you feel any like regret at all whilst you were doing it? Yeah. It probably ran through my head. Um maybe not regret, but you sort of question it. Um question why you’re doing it. Um because you just hit some really difficult places both not entirely physically but just how you’re feeling feeling sick. And I know like I had Abigavi was at 90k. So there was still over 100 km to to go. So at that point you do start to think still a lot of cycling to come. Can I do this? Is this a good idea? Yep. What should I do? [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Feeling a bit better? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. That’s an improvement. [Music] [Music] I was feeling okay after taking on some water and was able to stop and eat some food. But at about the 100 mile mark, I think that period of time where I just hadn’t eaten or really drunk, that probably started to kick in a bit physically. And then that just changed my mentality of it because it’s then that was already maybe 7 hours on the bike at that point and I’ve still got another 50k to go. So yeah, that’s where it changed mentally I think was about the 100 mile mark and it became a mental battle more than anything else at that point. [Music] [Music] It wasn’t too bad until we hit the last 12 km and we came off the A- road and then that was then really physically hard because there were some pretty spicy clims that with 190 plus kilometers in the legs I just and mentally being broken that I just didn’t have it in me. So there was a lot of pushing from pushing the bike up the hills at that point. All right. How’s that going? Not great. Feeling terrible the last few hours. Unexpected, huh? A bit unexpected, didn’t it? All these hills. Yeah, they’re just brutal hills as well. About 200k in. I just don’t have legs for it. So, yep. Oh well. I think that’s it for the uh the brutal left until you say that. I’ll be here. I don’t really know actually. Yeah, we’ll see. See what happens tomorrow as well. Not sure on another day like today, which is not great. [Music] So about 9 hours in total you had the bike for 9 and a half hours. 9 and a half hours the bike was Yeah. to go 206 km overall. And uh so how was that when you saw the ending sight? Obviously you would have saw seen the accommodation. Yeah. After nine and a half hours. What was that feeling like? I’m not sure if relief is the right word, but it was a big positive mental um step forward that you just then the end was there. I could see it. There weren’t any big hills in the way. You know, that was it. The bike was done. Um, and I could get off and rest up. Done. How you feeling? Not great. My ankle hurts. My knee hurts. I felt sick for so long. Yeah. So, it’s been hard getting anything in. So, not great. That’s day two done. Yeah. See what happens tomorrow. How many K was that? Um 206. So, it’s well over 230. Yeah. I think with how I’ve been feeling today, we’ll see how I feel tomorrow. Yep. And just play it like that cuz I can’t afford another day like that. Yeah. Yeah. It’s pretty hardcore. Yeah. Cuz it’ll just lead into Snowden issue as well. Yeah. If I can’t fuel and take on anything then. Yeah. So, it will work that out in the morning. Yeah. There we go. That’s great. Well done today. Yeah. Thanks. Any takeaways? Um, I’m an idiot. There we go. There you go. Cut with that. That’s how we’ll end. Going to sleep that night, I guess. I knew that something wasn’t quite right cuz I couldn’t really eat all of what we had for dinner. So, that I knew something wasn’t right at that point cuz I should have been hungry and I should have been able to eat it all. Um, so at that point I’m already starting to think if this doesn’t improve tomorrow, then perhaps I should not cycle the rest of the way and give me the best chance on the start line on Saturday. Um, so how did yesterday go? For the most part went okay. Um, I suffered with stomach problems from a couple of hours in. So, I couldn’t really take on as much um gels and blocks and everything else that I wasn’t wanting to eat um along the way, which made it a bit more challenging. I could only really take on a bit of water from after we stopped in Abigavi um for a little while after that until you picked me up again later on. So yeah, just uh just made the day hard. Um but we got got through it. Ended up with 206 kilometers. Made it to the accommodation. But um made the decision that because of the uh how challenging the day was in terms of how I felt and how I was feeling this morning that it probably wasn’t a good idea to carry on the cycle to here. So pulled the plug on that so that we can be okay for tomorrow and getting up into these hills. Y in the same sort of weather again nice and warm. But how does looking at that mountain up there makes you feel hot tomorrow? That one’s not too bad. It’s when you turn around and you got the peak of Snowden over there. Can we see Snowden just about that one’s a bit higher and I’ve got to pretty much do it twice. So those are the two daunted ones, but those are the two first ones up. And then uh after that it’s a bit smaller. That one behind looks big, but It’s only about half the size. And then there’s another one behind it as well. We’ve had today to soil up all mountains basically. Yeah. Yeah. Check it out. Check out the route a little bit. Work out where I’m coming down from, where I’m going. And then how what’s the distance tomorrow? 55 km tomorrow with over 3,000 meters of elevation gain. So, it’s going to be a long day again. Probably a 10-hour day at least. just see how it goes. Hopefully I don’t suffer with any stomach problems tomorrow in the heat. But yeah, it’s not something I can control, so it’s not something I’m going to worry about. No. Oh, it’s not a long run. Oh, wait. I’ll just drink the water then. It’s only a good 10 hours. Out of three, you could have ended up with. Yeah, I could have chosen not here today. Hang on a minute. You could have chosen your last couple of days, you know. Let’s just think about that for a minute. Think about that when you’re running. No one else here has done what you’ve done already. That’s true. I’ve already won, haven’t I? You have already won. You’ve already won. You’ve already won by anything. I’m not doing that. You’re not. No. Want to do anything here? Uh, can do it before we go in there because it’ll be busy in there. How you feeling then? All right. All right. Yeah. Ready. Ready to ready to go. Ready to get going. See how it see how the first hill goes. Yeah. And then um Yeah. Just take it hill by hill I think. Yeah. Eight station by eight station and just move forward. Keep moving forward. Final leg of the chapter it is. Yeah it is fine. So the event itself ultra chonia there are different um distances. So there’s 100 miles, 100 km, 50 km, and then 25 I think. So the 100 mile people went off on the Friday at 1:00, but I wasn’t going off on the 50k until the Saturday at half 8. Um, and then the 100 km they got off early morning on the earlier on the Saturday. [Music] [Music] time. Enjoy it, mate. Take it easy. I’ll see you at various points on the course. Yeah. Enjoy it. 5 4 3 2 1 You go. Wave three by UTF. The last wave of our 50 [Music] [Applause] shoes are So the plan was to the first part of the run you go up the Lamberas path up to not the summit of Snowden but just beneath the summit before you take the pig track back down to Penny Pass. So my plan was to try and just take that a bit easier and just ease myself into the run. Don’t go off too hard. Um cuz I’ve already be fatigued anyway. So just see how it’s going up there. take on some fuel whilst going up and then um then take the descent pretty easy as well. First hill done. It wasn’t until I started descending down the pig track that I started again feeling the same sort of sickness that I had on the bike on Thursday, a couple of days before. And then that just becomes another mental battle. Um, every time I took on food, I would feel sick for a bit. Um, then started feeling a bit uneasy on my legs coming down the pig track. So, it was it was quite a difficult descent, quite a mentally challenging descent and almost at the point where I was just done mentally. [Music] What you reckon he’s thinking right now? Why am I doing this? I should not have signed up to this. Yeah. Yeah. Do you think feel like he’s getting his money’s worth doing this? Well, he’s I mean depends what you mean by that time. Obviously, he’s paid money to actually do this. Yeah, I think that’s Yeah, I don’t In terms of duration, he’s he’s Yeah, he’s taking his time, isn’t he? So, he’s getting his money he’s getting his money out of the time spent on course, but not the easiest start to a 50 km ultramarathon, but Well, yeah, let’s let’s put that into some perspective. The 50 km ultramarathon’s hard enough. And then he made it harder by doing a 206k bike ride. And no, no, that’s not hard enough. Let’s do a 5k swim before that. Yeah. This is crazy. Yeah. Do you reckon you give it a go? No. No. Just not today. No. No. Not the right shoes. Not the right shoes. Not in me flip flops. No. No. I think it’s crazy. after the uh first descent comes into an aid station. Um what were your feelings like going into that aid station? I was ready to call it a day at that aid station um just because of how I was feeling. Um but I got in there, put some water in my bottles to refilled, had some Coke, had a bit of food. I just thought I’d carry on and just see where I got to next. Um see if I could go back up Snowden um and and just go from there. If it was that I got halfway up snow, I just really think that that you know it’s a good idea to call at that point then turn around. But yeah, [Music] how you doing, mate? Not great. It’s a terrible four hours, but we’ll see how this little bit goes and make a decision on it, I think. All good, mate. You’re all good. Are you all good? You look good. At least I look better than I feel. We’ll come up with you. Yeah. Just go. We’re just going to uh see how it goes. Yeah. We’re going to be your hype, man. That’s right. Let’s go. I just made cut off at the a station. Just what? Make a cut off at the a station. Yeah, we made it. That’s the That’s the point, man. Keep going. Yeah. upstairs. Come on. Yeah. Yeah. We’re just going to bit up. They weren’t planning on coming up. They were just walking up with me. And at some point they they were going to turn back and go back down because they’d left the car and everything back at the bottom of that path. you get to a fairly steep bit where you you’re climbing up to get onto the ridge line that you follow then to take to the top of Snowden. And just beneath that ridge, I was I was again we stopped and I was about ready to to call it a day, but Elliot convinced me just to go the next 50 m up cuz then we were on the ridge. um and then see how and then we can make a decision from there. So, we did that and at that point I sort of mentally had a switch sort of flick in my head and just think, right, let’s just do it now. We’re up on the ridge line. Let’s just get to the top of Snowden and come down and we’ll see where we are at the bottom. [Music] So they then followed me and came with me all the way up that ridge line and then took the descent down with me as well to the opposite side of Snowden. [Music] Serum for years the night before wasn’t at best for me. Yeah, definitely not a good idea. Do you think you could have done that last ascent and descent without it? Probably not. That’s a wrap. Um, I knew the time cough was probably probably going to miss the time cough coming down because it had taken a little bit longer to get up just because of I was I felt like I was just running on no fuel um, physically. So, it was difficult to me to move any to move quickly up the climb. So I knew sort of when we got to the top that it was then going to be difficult to move down and I’d probably have to have run down and I just at that point I I didn’t have the energy in me to run down the range path into the aid station. So when we got to the the aid station I think I missed the time cough by 20 or 30 minutes. So at that point it was out of the race. Uh I’m okay. I’m okay. Legs are okay. Yeah. No, no fuel in in the body that that bike I think has just taken its toll on on me and my ability to fuel it. So, there we go. Should we wrap that? Yeah, let’s get back. Good day in the hills. Have to come back next year. To be continued. Yeah. Yeah. So, overall, how would you say that it all went? I think I did everything I possibly could have to have finished that as successfully as I I could have. There are things that you just can’t prepare for. I couldn’t prepare for the fact of how I felt a few hours into that bike and whatever caused that, whether it was the heat or something else. That’s something that’s completely out of my control. So, I don’t think there’s much else I could have done to have completed that challenge. At the end of the day, it was all for raising money. Um, raising money for something that happened unexpectedly, just as something unexpectedly happened to me in the race. Oh, [Music] heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] What were the final distances you completed in the end? Um, so the final distances were we did we did the 5k swim. I did 206 km on the bike and then we ended up at just over 33 km on the run. Are you proud of what you’ve accomplished? Yes. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]