After finishing this final triathlon he confirmed with Guinness World Records that his 21 days, 9 hours and 18 minutes was the fastest time for completing a 140.6-mile triathlon on seven continents and that his time in Antarctica (28 hours, 51 minutes and 11 seconds) was the fastest for such a triathlon on the coldest, driest continent (there have only been two others completed). He then shovelled down some food and slept for 16 hours. <\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t showered. I\u2019ve slept in a hoodie,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen we get to Punta Arenas [in Chile] I\u2019ll have a lovely cold shower, get really clean, put some fresh clothes on.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Matthews used a extra thick wetsuit used by polar divers<\/p>\n
MATTHEW STONE<\/p>\n
Two things become clear during our conversation. First Matthews\u2019s experience in Antarctica was more frightening and humbling than he had been expecting. And second he is keen for me to know that the bearded, weather-beaten, slightly haggard Spencer Matthews staring out at me is not quite the man I have previously met in the flesh.<\/p>\n
It is, of course, a clich\u00e9 to ask runners what they are running from but Matthews volunteers that part of the reason he is in Antarctica is to get away from the person he calls \u201cformer Spencer\u201d. That Spencer came to our attention when he was the boastful lothario on the \u201cstructured reality\u201d TV series Made in Chelsea and went on to make a career sharing every detail of his life in ways that some found endlessly entertaining and others brain-shrinkingly banal.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u2018We\u2019re so boring!\u2019: at home with Spencer Matthews and Vogue Williams<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Before we come on to the shame he feels about his younger, prodigiously promiscuous, hard-drinking self, he explains why he is looking quite so stunned after his encounter with Antarctica. His Project Se7en challenge began with a full-distance triathlon in London, then continued with an official Ironman event in Arizona and triathlons of the same length in Cape Town, Perth (Australia), Dubai and Rio. After that he headed to Antarctica, where a mostly Chilean team had made arrangements for him at the Russian station.<\/p>\n The 2.4-mile swim in open water in a bay where the sea temperature was 0C was the bit he had been most worried about for months. \u201cGoing hypothermic essentially could bring an end to the challenge,\u201d he says. In Cape Town, where the water was warmer but reportedly contained rabid seals, he got so cold that he had an out-of-body experience and wondered if he was having a heart attack. He needed 90 minutes in a hot shower to warm up. \u201cIt was probably the closest that the challenge came to ending,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In Antarctica he opted for an extra thick wetsuit used by polar divers but didn\u2019t have a chance to practise in it. \u201cI\u2019d been genuinely pretty fearful and I was overwhelmed by the swim safety briefing the night before. They had appointed seven spotters and two boats, a Russian boat and a Chilean boat, flanking me quite closely and I said, \u2018What\u2019s with the level of security?\u2019 And the guy just said, \u2018If something gets hold of you, we need to be near you.\u2019 I said, \u2018What do you mean, if something gets hold of me?\u2019 They said, \u2018Leopard seals grab from the side and then they drag you as deep as possible as fast as possible.\u2019 I thought, \u2018That sounds very unwelcoming.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Spencer Matthews: \u2018I wanted to bring my brother\u2019s body home for Mum\u2019<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Matthews was being filmed for a documentary. Footage of him being mistaken for a penguin by a hungry 600kg leopard seal would have made for one of the most sensational chapters in reality television. Fortunately, although he was an easy target \u2014 \u201ca large, wounded penguin given the way I was swimming\u201d \u2014 he escaped even a nibble (I must confess I did rush to look up leopard seal teeth and their canines are huge). Some in his WhatsApp groups also seem to have enjoyed focusing on this part of the story and he has been dubbed \u201cthe Spenguin\u201d.<\/p>\n Real penguins crossed his path, causing alarm because he couldn\u2019t see what they were. \u201cI was exhausted coming out of the water, could barely walk. I vomited profusely because I swallowed so much seawater.\u201d<\/p>\n Penguins crossed his path as he swam 2.4 miles<\/p>\n MATTHEW STONE<\/p>\n His flight to the base had been delayed and the runway was no longer clear for him to use for his 112-mile cycle, so he had to slog up and down a 200m icy and pitted road for nearly 19 hours. \u201cMental torture \u2014 you\u2019re not getting anywhere,\u201d he says. The temperature on land was minus 1 to 2C but with the wind chill it felt more like minus 18. He ran the marathon in loops around the Chilean air base.<\/p>\n \u201cThree weeks of extraordinary highs and lows\u201d is his verdict on the whole project. \u201cThe lows were partly what I was after.\u201d<\/p>\n Last year Matthews ran 30 marathons in 30 days in Jordan, setting the world record for the most marathons run in a month on sand. He preferred the \u201cunpredictability\u201d of the ultramarathons. \u201cThis is what living is all about to me,\u201d he says. \u201cI love this. When I\u2019m 80 years old, I hope to be able to tell my grandkids all about it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 The science bros transforming men\u2019s health and wellness<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Matthews\u2019s reinvention of himself as an endurance athlete is part of an attempt to put behind him a misspent youth in which, he once claimed, he slept with 1,000 women. When I met him last year he was planning his desert marathons and was embarrassed when I read him extracts from his 2013 autobiography about an orgy and a contest to sleep with the most women. Nevertheless we touched on the content of his podcast with his wife, Vogue Williams, the model and presenter, which included such intimate revelations as her complaints that she didn\u2019t like looking at his hair during sex. <\/p>\n In the Jordanian desert he had an epiphany. (That\u2019s my word, not his. Last year, when he took part in the BBC\u2019s programme Pilgrimage, he expressed surprise that Jesus Christ was a real person.) \u201cI had a moment in that desert where I realised I don\u2019t much want to entertain. I\u2019ve been a talentless entertainer. I had a big \u2018who am I?\u2019 moment. Why am I doing these shows? Do I want to be doing them when I\u2019m 50?\u201d<\/p>\n At the start of this year he stopped doing the podcast with Williams (who has another successful podcast with her sister, Amber) to focus on his endurance feats, a fitness podcast, Untapped, and his alcohol-free spirits company. But he and Williams have been talking about working together again.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel extraordinarily lucky to be married to that woman. We\u2019re a very, very happy couple,\u201d he says. She has just been in the I\u2019m a Celebrity \u2026 jungle. He could not be in Australia to greet her when she left because he was on his long-planned triathlon epic. \u201cNot talking to Vogue for that period of time was horrendous,\u201d he says. Their three children were looked after by a rotation of both sets of grandparents while they were away.<\/p>\n Matthews has seen that bit of jungle already, though it was a briefer than expected visit when he was found to have been taking a steroid-based medication and left the 2015 series. \u201cThat\u2019s former Spencer we\u2019re talking about,\u201d he says quickly.<\/p>\n![\"Spencer](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/\/f7af173f-99ea-4d59-bfa9-aede7a3a1c07.jpg\")
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