FEATURE FERGUS CRAWLEY
Nottingham’s Outlaw is one of the iconic triathlons. It’s iron-distance, it’s tough, you know you’ve been in a battle. With the 3.8km swim, 18okm bike and marathon run, there’s little you could do to make it tougher - apart from undertaking a brutal 3am 1,200lb powerlifting workout, just hours before the swim start…
That’s what Fergus Crawley did in 2021, which you can watch on his popular YouTube channel. Crawley identifies as a hybrid athlete, for whom the historic notion of being either an endurance athlete or strongman is anathema. He’s followed in the footsteps of Ross Edgley, whose synergistic exploits include pulling a car 26.2 miles around Silverstone circuit and completing a triathlon while carrying a 45kg tree. He represents a growing band of athletes who juggle the two.
“The working definition is the training of disciplines that don’t necessarily support one another,” Crawley explains from Birmingham Airport where he’s just landed from his Edinburgh home en route to one of his sponsors, Gymshark. With strength and endurance, the prime disconnect is that gym-junkie muscularity adds weight that isn’t conducive to long, stamina-fuelled events. At a
