Billy Monger: The Double Amputee Racing for an IRONMAN Record

TriDot Podcast Episode 265

Billy Monger - The Double Amputee Racing for an IRONMAN Record

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Intro: This is the TriDot podcast. TriDot uses your training data and genetic profile, combined with predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to optimize your training, giving you better results in less time with fewer injuries. Our podcast is here to educate, inspire, and entertain. We’ll talk all things triathlon with expert coaches and special guests. Join the conversation and let’s improve together.

Andrew Harley: Welcome to the TriDot Podcast. If you are listening to this episode the week that it releases, it’s Kona Week. This weekend, we’ll have big racing on the Big Island, and on the podcast today we’ve got a big story to tell with an athlete who will be there, on the Big Island, racing. That athlete is Billy Monger. Billy is a racecar driver who competed in Formula 3 and Formula 4. A crash in Formula 4 led to the amputation of both of his legs. He now covers Formula 1 racing as a broadcast commentator for Channel 4 in the UK. Billy is racing in Kona whilst raising money for Comic Relief. He is training with TriDot, and he is aiming to become the fastest double amputee Ironman finisher. Billy, I can't wait to follow your journey on the Big Island. Welcome to the TriDot Podcast.

Billy Monger: Thanks for having me.

Andrew: Also with us is Billy's coach and good friend of the podcast, Coach Will Usher. Will is the head coach and founder of the Precision Race Team, a top-ranked team in the European rankings. Formerly a captain in the Royal Military Elite Close Protection Unit, Will has been coaching triathlon for over 20 years. He has competed in over 200 triathlons and duathlons, ranging from local races to the World Championships. Still competing, his current focus for himself is Ironman and Ironman 70.3. Coach Will, good to see you again.

Will Usher: Great to be here. I'm excited for next week, because we're finally into single figures and days.

Andrew: Well, I am Andrew, the average triathlete, voice of the people, and captain of the middle of the pack. As always, we'll roll through our warm-up question, settle in for our main set conversation with Billy, and then wind things down with our cool down. Lots of good stuff. Let's get to it.

Warm up theme: Time to warm up! Let’s get moving.

Andrew: In motorsports, racing typically takes place on two or four wheels. At the Olympics, racing takes place on skates, skis, boards, boats, and bikes. In triathlon, we race by swimming, biking, and running. Some folks race horses, and at the Texas State Fair near where I live, would you believe it, they actually have races for pigs. The point is, there are many ways to stage a race. And as our warm-up question today, guys, I want to hear: what is your favorite movie that features a race of some kind as part of the plot? Billy Wiz, what is this answer for you?

Billy: Do you know what, this one is, for me, I used to love, when I was a kid, watching Talladega Nights.

Andrew: Yeah!

Billy: Classic. So, yeah, for me, that's a good one.

Andrew: How closely, Billy, do you feel like Talladega Nights represents the intricacies of a motorsports team?

Billy: I don’t know, it's a bit rough around the edges, a little bit, you know. It's a little bit for entertainment purposes, but you still get the crux of all the different characters that you meet in a paddock. So, that’s, yeah, always interesting for me, so that’s what.

Andrew: And then that, I imagine, even amongst our audience is probably a popular answer to this question. That movie is hilarious. Will Usher, Talladega Nights is off the table. You can't say that one. So, what's this answer for you?

Will: Yeah, for me, I'm going to date myself here, but it's Days of Thunder. Rubbing is Racing. 80s, 90s child, it's always got to be there.

Andrew: Yeah, so, I grew up a huge NASCAR fan. Total side note, that'll probably come up a few times as we talk to Billy. But Days of Thunder as a kid, I knew it existed. And as a young kid, I wanted to watch it so bad. I didn't understand why my parents made me fast forward through certain scenes. And seeing it as an adult, I now understand why I had to fast forward through some scenes as a young boy. But, great answer here. Tom Cruise's Days of Thunder. For me, genuinely, I was extremely tempted here to say Wreck-It Ralph or Cool Runnings. Both involve racing in certain ways. Both are hilarious Disney movies, right? They're very funny, very heartfelt. But as a film snob, I have to go with Ford versus Ferrari. An excellent picture with Matt Damon and Christian Bale. Really enjoyed it from start to finish. So that's my answer here. We are going to throw this question out to the TriDot audience. Make sure you're a member of the I AM TriDot Facebook group. I'm going to pose this question to you, our audience. What is your favorite movie that has racing as a major, or minor, plot point? Can't wait to see what you guys have to say.

Main set theme: On to the main set. Going in 3…2…1…

Andrew: Every time the IRONMAN World Championships comes around, I am emotionally invested. Whether I am there in person or not, I always have as many TriDot athletes as possible in my IRONMAN tracker. And I am emotionally invested in the race. This time around, knowing what Billy Monger is setting out to achieve, I will be keeping an extra close eye on his progress. And Billy, between triathlon and motorsports, it seems like you have a knack for competing in sports that are not necessarily the most mainstream. As a youngster, how did you get into car racing?

Billy: Yeah, so, car racing, like you say, it's not a mainstream sport, whatsoever. And I got introduced to it through my dad. He used to race, more as a hobby than competitively, when he was younger. So him and his mates would basically build cars up in their garages. And then they would drive those same cars to the racetrack, race around in them, and sometimes, if they didn't finish in the top 5 or in a certain position, they struggled to have enough money to pay for the fuel home. So, that's, like, fundamentally how I got introduced into racing, where my dad–

Andrew: If you're not first, you don't go home.

Billy: Effectively that. So, yeah, it all started with my dad just enjoying motorsport and enjoying racing. Then he got me a go-kart when I was actually 2 years old, but I couldn't drive it until I was 6. So he was fairly keen for me to have a go. And it kind of started from there. We went out, you know, at local track. My dad was, I was that slow when I started, my dad would actually run around the track in front of me. And he's not Zach B, you know, a triathlete, or Mo Farah. So, you know, it was just real walking pace stuff.

I was just building it up when I was 6 years old, just enjoying it. Then, yeah, it went from there.

Andrew: And as a fan of motorsports, right, motorsports at its best is fast, and fluid, and beautiful, and at its worst, it obviously can seriously injure its athletes. So kind of, for our audience, kind of take us back to that day in Formula 4 when you had your wreck. Obviously, you were sent to the hospital afterwards. What do you remember from that day and just finding out what was going to happen to your lower legs?

Billy: Yeah, so, it was like any other race weekend, really. In the British Formula 4 weekends, we have 3 races across Saturday and Sunday, and the timetable around that, sometimes we would have one race on Saturday, two on Sunday. Some weekends, depending on TV schedules, et cetera, it would be two races on the Saturday, one on the Sunday. So, that was kind of flexible. And on this occasion, I'd already had two races that had happened on the Saturday, so this was the third and final race of the weekend. The two races that I had on Saturday, the first one, I finished third in the race from seventh on the grid, so I finished on the podium. The second one, I had a mechanical failure, so just one of those things that happens along the way in motorsport.

Andrew: Yeah, sure.

Billy: That, sometimes stuff breaks when you're going that fast, and that's what happened in that scenario. So it was kind of a mixed bag of a day, on the Saturday at Donington Park. Then woke up Sunday morning off the back of a mechanical failure. And that was, I think, my first mechanical, and the first time that season that I've been off the podium in the first four, no, first five races, sorry. Yeah, it had been a consistent start to the season, and it was a little bit bittersweet that we'd had that mechanical failure happen. So I was keen to bounce back in the final race of the weekend. And, yeah, we lined up on the grid, same as usual, apart from the conditions that we were driving in were, as from a driver's perspective, were the trickiest conditions you can face, where you're on slick tires, and it starts to rain when you're on the grid. So you know that the grip level was going to be at its minimum.

Andrew: I don't like that on a bike, so I can only imagine in a Formula 4 car.

Billy: It's actually with this platform on TriDot and in the world of triathlon, you'll understand how those slick tires that give you the ultimate performance in dry conditions can sometimes catch you out in the wet. And effectively, that's what, in the racing world, we have, but maybe to a slightly, you know, more severe scale, because you're really pushing those grip levels to the maximum, going at the speeds that you drive at in racing cars. And, yeah, so again, like I say, tricky conditions, but those were actually conditions that I really love racing in, because when I was younger, sometimes my dad, I don’t know what he watched, but he watched a clip of Lewis Hamilton's dad doing this with Lewis Hamilton, of putting him out in practice, in the wet, on slick tires to develop almost a feel for the grip, and that’s a skill, as a racing driver, that is valued in all sorts of different conditions. So my dad did that for me. And so actually, because of that experience when I was younger, I really, normally, thrived and did well in those mixed conditions, so I was looking forward to the race. The start didn't go to plan, so I think I was lining up around sixth on the grid. Basically, there was a collision in front of me between, I think, the driver that was first on the grid and second on the grid. So I had to almost spin out to avoid their incident that happened at turn one. Normally in motorsports, turn one is always carnage, and in this situation, it was exactly the same. And I was, you know, an unlucky participant in the sense that I got caught up in their incident. So I dropped second from the back of the field. And at that point, effectively in your head, it's easy to think race over. But for me, it kind of alleviates any remaining pressure that would be on the shoulders of delivering results, because it’s like, okay, head down, I can only do what I can do. Let me see how many cars I can get past and what I can salvage out of this race. And that's effectively what I was doing up until the point where I had my accident. The corner before I had my crash, I had live TV cameras on my car at the time, because of my pretty solid start to the season. They wanted to use me as one of their onboard drivers. And I was overtaking a car the corner before my accident. And then, at Donington Park, the track that the crash was at, you go up a hill, there's a slight blind, sort of crest. And also, driving Formula 4 cars, you're super slammed and low to the ground in terms of the driving position. So when you get to these sorts of crests, you can't see a lot anyway, because you're so low. My vision was blocked by two cars that were battling ahead side by side in front of me. And next thing you know, they dive each way around this stationary car last minute that they've obviously been able to see up the road. And where my vision's been blocked, I'm presented with this stationary car whilst doing 120 miles an hour. Hit the back of the car, everything all comes to a halt. And then, obviously the medical team at the track do their thing. They look after me, put me into a helicopter, and I wake up three days later as a double amputee. So, that’s like, fundamentally how the day was from my perspective.

Andrew: What astonishes me here, Billy, just in watching your story and reading up on your story before this conversation, you were 17 years old. You were a few weeks away from your 18th birthday. And in every interview I've seen you talk about this event, I mean, you came away from the wreck and that hospital visit with such a remarkably positive attitude. Not one that I think I could certainly have. And you actually attribute that to kind of the physician team attending to you in the hospital. What was said to you that kind of had you in a place leaving the hospital with a positive attitude that helped you get back into a race car?

Billy: I think for me, the accident at the time, it happened in a flash, and it's hard, when you're doing those sorts of speeds and when things happen in those split-second moments, to really understand what's happened. I obviously knew the accident was serious when I was sat in the car. I was awake for about 45 minutes after my accident while the doctors were, sort of, you know, getting ready to extract me before they put me into a medically induced coma. And then, when you sort of come out of that coma, you realize the situation. The doctors were, like you said, you mentioned them there, they were fantastic at just explaining it all to me. But I think subconsciously, something that helped ease it was the fact that I realized the crash was a big crash, because I'd had crashes before. It's natural in motorsport to have accidents along the way. It’s like, you can't go out of your way to avoid this stuff happening. It's just part of motorsport.

Andrew: That's so wild.

Billy: Being in that sport, you know, there’s dangers involved doing high speed. So I think, yeah, I knew something serious had happened. I didn't know what that would look like. You never expect that, to be waking up as a double amputee. But that was the reality. My doctors were great at, just, rather than, you know, talking to me in a way where it framed it as I wouldn't be able to do this, this, and this going forward, or these things would be a struggle sort of thing, or rather than framing it in a way where I was thinking about what I'd lost out on, they framed it in a way where it was like, okay, even though this awful thing has happened to you, if you work hard with your recovery or rehabilitation, you'll still be able to be independent. You'll still be able to walk, you'll still be able to, you know, do all these things and live a good quality of life. So like, I think it just changed my perspective slightly, where it was like, I didn't think of what I'd lost out on. I thought about it from, yeah, what I still had to live for and the fact that I still could have a good quality of life. So that was definitely a big, big part of shaping my mindset. And then also, my family, my support network were amazing. You know, just being really positive, supporting me when I needed it. Really, you know, felt their support around me, and that just gave me confidence to try, do all this stuff that I've gone on to do since my accident.

Andrew: You knew pretty quickly you wanted to get back into a race car, and you did in fact get back into a race car, and you won races getting back into a race car. What was that headspace like? Just going through what you went through and then, “hey, I want to keep racing. I don't want to shy away from this.”

Billy: I think, in terms of that transition from, you know, from having this accident, and having maybe that fear factor creep in, and then to that sort of subsiding. Before my accident, racing had always been, and being behind the wheel of a racing car, had always been that comfortable safe space in a weird kind of way. It's just where, naturally, I felt at home. I felt like everything– stresses, worries outside of the car in life that I may have had– kind of went away, and it was just, like, solely focusing on the driving, and being in that moment, and being present with that. So that was my escape before my accident. And I remember the first about 5 to 10 laps after my accident, having this weird feeling where I was driving this racing car, but nothing was the same as it was before, cause I was driving it with hand controls, and that muscle memory that I spent all those years building up all of a sudden wasn't relevant. And, you know, I was making, you know, mistakes with pulling the wrong paddle, going into a corner for the first 5, 10 laps. And it all felt overwhelming and a bit stressful. And I kind of thought, “is this, like, can I do this again?” But after about 5 to 10 laps of having these thoughts going through my mind as I was driving around the circuit, I started to get the hang of this new system, started to, you know, not make silly mistakes, started to just focus on the job at hand and forget about the worries and all this other life-changing stuff that was happening to me. And, quite quickly, it became that safe space again. And it was like, okay, this is, yeah, it changed the way I do it, and it's not natural yet, but I think there's something to this and that I could possibly race again.

Andrew: And you actually went on to race in Formula 3 after the wreck, which Formula 3 is a step up in caliber of car and driver from Formula 4, where you had your wreck, and you won some races. You won a race, you were on top of the podium in Formula 3. So you had some success there. How sweet was that first podium back in Formula 3?

Billy: You know, a lot of people were saying, “you had this wreck in Formula 4, surely it's sensible to go back. You know the car already, you know the demands that come along with doing that category of racing. All you've got to do is basically master these new controls.” And also, it would have been, you know, effectively my third year of driving in that category. So there'd have been a good chance I'd have been, you know, right up there in the mix for the championship. But for me, my accident, I didn't want it to be something that sort of dictated and changed the trajectory of my life where I could avoid it. And without my accident, my goal would have been for the following year, would have been to step up to Formula 3. So that was the thought process and the reasoning behind making that step up to Formula 3, even with this significant accident. And my first-ever race back, I remember turning up and getting a few pats on the back for just being there, and kind of thinking to myself– after, you know, a lot of hard work over the winter, developing this new system, these new controls, everything like that– kind of thinking, “yeah, you're patting me on the back now, but maybe that's because you're not taking me seriously as a racing driver, and you don't know what I'm capable of doing, even with being a double amputee.” And yeah, I think a lot of the mindsets around my fellow competitors probably shifted when, the first race back after my accident out of a grid of over 20, I was on the podium. I think that kind of, yeah, sharpened the focus and made people, yeah, take me seriously.

Andrew: I'm curious, Billy, so from the wide world of motorsports, now you are into triathlon. Where did swim, bike, run end up on your radar in the first place? And how did you become a triathlete?

Billy: So swim, bike, run sort of came to me when I did my first challenge for Comic Relief, which was back in 2021. It was during the pandemic, COVID times, and I remember after having raced in 2019 for the second year running after my accident, I had set my goal on racing in European Formula 3, which is effectively the third tier of racing underneath Formula 1 and Formula 2. So that was the next step for my career. I got all the sponsorship lined up, and my space on the grid was basically confirmed. And then, out of nowhere, this global pandemic comes about, and racing in the junior categories is put on hold. I mean, the whole world was put on hold, and as a result of, you know, those tough financial times for a lot of businesses, my sponsorship deals kind of deteriorated in the space of a couple of months. It became apparent that, in the year of 2020, I wouldn't be competing. And all my physical exercise routines, everything like that, was, in my mind, before that moment, was all around being able to perform to the best level in a racing car. I didn't enjoy fitness. I didn't really, like, go out of my way to, you know, go and train. It was more, okay, if I don't do this, my performance in the car will be affected. So I’m going to train, that way I can perform in the racing car, but that is all I wanted to do. So when I knew I wasn't racing in 2020, the easiest, the quickest thing that got cut off in my mind was, okay, well, I don't need to worry about my fitness because I'm not going to be driving.

Andrew: Sure, yeah. Yeah, just let it go.

Billy: So I enjoyed, whilst being at home in this pandemic, I enjoyed eating burgers and sitting on racing simulators, or my Xbox, and just basically enjoying that side of things and taking my foot off the gas, I guess you could say, when it came to the world of fitness. And then, I reckon we got about 4 months into living in this sort of pandemic, weird lifestyle. And I kind of took a look in the mirror and said, “yeah, this isn't a good path for you, Billy. Like, you're not being the best version of yourself right now by just, you know, slacking because you're not racing.” So I decided to get back into shape and to work on my fitness even though I wasn't racing, and, actually, through the process of about six, seven months to probably the end of November of 2020, I actually got myself back into probably better shape than I was in when I was racing, because rather than training for a specific, you know, task of driving racing cars, I actually found a way to enjoy training and the process of getting fitter and stronger outside of racing. So that was where that whole thing sort of started, and, funny enough, me and my trainer at the time, we were speaking about, okay, how do we make 2020 feel like, even with this global pandemic happening, that we still achieved something throughout the year, even though I hadn't been racing and it kind of had been this weird period of time. So we thought, “okay, maybe we'll do like our own little mini challenge. We’ll do, like a little bit of,” where his gym was based down in the South Downs, it was like, “okay, we’ll climb up these hills in the South Downs, we'll get a kayak, we'll kayak down river to the ocean and then we'll do a bit of ocean swimming and that can be like our little mini challenge ticked off.”

Andrew: Yeah, love it.

Billy: So this was just this tiny little idea that we had in our heads, and, no word of a lie, two weeks later, if that, I get a call from Comic Relief saying, “we'd like to talk to you about maybe getting involved with Comic Relief.” And I knew of the charity, it's massive in the UK, and I thought, “okay, yeah, let's see what they've got to say.” And they came up with, they basically pitched this idea of me doing a 140 mile, effectively, challenge, but walking a marathon, rather than swimming, kayaking, and then cycling as well. So it was kind of, it was a triathlon in a sense. It was three sports and 140 miles.

Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll count it, sure.

Billy: But, but it was very different to an actual Ironman and triathlon, as I've found through this process of training for this one. And anyway, I went on to do this first challenge for Comic Relief, thoroughly enjoyed it. We raised a lot of money for charity, just over 3 million pounds. And it was just as incredible, like, whirlwind of three month period to go from, you know, having this tiny little goal that me and my trainer had in mind at the time, to have done this challenge for Comic Relief and raised over 3 million pounds. And in my mind, I was like, “okay, I've gone from eating burgers indoors in COVID to getting into good shape, and then getting into really good shape to do this Comic Relief challenge, and I need a bit of a break.” That was kind of where it was in my head. Next thing you know, my trainer's going, “okay, well, what's next? Because I really enjoyed training you for this, so we should do another challenge.” And I kind of went, “you're bonkers. I need a bit of time off.” But I said, “feel free to fill your boots, have a look at some challenges that are out there. And, like, you can give me a list of challenges you think that I might, you know, want to take a crack at, and I'll come back to you with a yes or a no around them and see whether it interests me.” And one of the challenges that was on the list, amongst many, was taking on the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona and trying to break the record for a double amputee to complete the course. And out of all the challenges, that one interested me the most, because during my first Comic Relief challenge, I relearned how to ride a bike, and I always enjoyed cycling before my accident. And having learned how to re-ride a bike again, to a certain extent, it felt like, “okay, I really enjoyed the cycling part, so this involves more cycling.” And, equally, doing an Ironman just seems bonkers to most people.

Andrew: Agree, yeah. Totally agree.

Billy: Doing it as a double amputee, I was like, “okay, that's really bonkers. And oh, there's a world record that we're going to try and break. Okay, yeah, this is nuts, but I like it. So let's do it.”

Andrew: So what is the record? What do you have to go under to officially have that?

Billy: So the record is 16 hours, 26. So that's the time to beat, effectively, to secure the world record for a double amputee.

Andrew: Okay.

Billy: Obviously it's in Kona, so, you know, you've got to add at least a couple of hours on to what a normal course would take because of the heat, humidity, and just how challenging of a, you know, an environment racing in Kona is. So, you know, a lot of people in the process of this have kind of said to me, “why are you doing it in Hawaii? Like, you know, what's the reason?” And the reason is, that's where the record's set, and I don't want to try and break it anywhere else other than Hawaii. And also, selfishly, now I've got this far into the world of triathlon, I just realized how lucky and privileged I am to be able to race Kona. Like, everyone that I speak to at half Ironman events that I've done to qualify for Kona have said, “you're doing Kona? That's going to be wicked.” And, yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, it's the place. It's the place. Yeah. Will, as his coach, is he ready? Is he going to do it? Is he going to break the record?

Will: I think so. We've had a few ups and downs along the way, and I think our starting point to where we are now is very different. I can't remember the term I use, I was, about halfway through the process, I was cautiously optimistic, but I would never go beyond that, because you never know. This is long distance racing. It's Kona in particular. So there's an awful lot that go wrong. However, yeah, I think it's on.

Andrew: Billy, I'm curious, just as, swim, bike, running, obviously that's three sports for anybody to learn. What changes in completing those sports as a double amputee? Or I guess, put a little bit more differently, without your legs, how do you swim, bike, and run?

Billy: Yeah, so the swimming, I guess, is the part that is the most similar, for me, to any other individual that, you know, swims in an IRONMAN event, because I don't wear any prosthetics. So effectively, I'm just swimming without the use of my legs, which in swimming anyway, it's an upper body, you know, dominated discipline. So, you know, it's not easy, but out of the three disciplines, I'd say it's the one that I'm the most competitive in amongst all of the, you know, the other athletes that will be competing. But equally, with my luck attached, it is the shortest of all three.

Andrew: Sure.

Billy: So that first hour or so, or however long it takes me to do the swim in Hawaii, that is going to be, you know, the part where I feel like I've got the best chance to hang with a lot of very talented, fit individuals. And then we get onto the bike, and that is probably been– it's hard to say, actually, what's been the most challenging, either the cycling or the running, because both of them have had their own challenges, because I wear prosthetics for both. The prosthetics, especially when you're doing long distance events such as this, the fitting of a prosthetic being right or being slightly wrong can make a huge difference over either 180 kilometers on a bike or across a marathon on running blades. So it's been a real fine tuning process, I’d say, throughout this whole journey to make sure that, at all times, me, Will, my trainer, we communicate about how my legs are feeling, my stump health is doing, and then communicate any changes we want to make to my prosthetics. You know, my prosthetics guy, who's called Steve, who works at Dorset Orthopedics. So it's been a real team effort in that regard. Like, it's not as simple, I guess, for me as it is for other athletes, maybe, where Will can give them the training plan and say, “go away and get on with training.”

Andrew: Yeah.

Billy: A lot of the time, and when things are going well, that is the case. But when there's updates or when I'm having these issues, that's where the communication side of things has been really important during this process.

Will: Yeah, I'd say, like, Billy touched on it there, it's definitely a team sort of game, this one. It always is, but I mean, we also coach with a chap called Mark Buckingham, who is also really good at understanding the equipment side in particular. And the one thing I would say with Parasport is that it is so individual. Like, on paper, somebody may have a similar disability, but actually, the prosthetics are so unique to that person. So whilst, you know what it is you're trying to achieve, you're going to use some, for example, blades for the run, that's the simple bit. The difficult bit is fitting it bespoke to the individual. So, you know, and one of the things we love about Parasport is that, more so than an able-bodied sport, the individuality is staggering. And the prosthetists, and so on, are designing stuff that has never been designed before, or creating solutions that's never happened before, which is pretty cool.

Andrew: No, it’s extremely cool. I'm curious, Billy, what role do you think having Will in your corner has played for your preparations for Kona?

Billy: Yeah, I mean, I've been so fortunate to work with Will.

Andrew: He's a good chap. He’s a good lad.

Billy: He’s a good lad, and he knows his onions when it comes to the world of IRONMAN and triathlons. Like you said, he's done just a fair few in his time.

Andrew: A couple.

Billy: You know, the whole team I've got around me for this, I mean, it's really, the thought of doing this by myself, it would be impossible. Like, I don’t have any doubts about that in my mind. Just the sheer amount of equipment that I have to carry around compared to the average person. You know, I rock up to these IRONMAN races and I've got, you know, sets of prosthetic legs with the running blades attached. I've got my cycling legs. I've got my bike. I've got small, short legs, which I use sort of, I guess you could call them my comfy, slipper kind of style I love to walk around in, to save some energy in. Just the sheer amount of equipment that we've ended up having and needing through this process has been remarkable. And it does take a truckload of people and an army of, you know, people carrying legs over their shoulders half a mile to transition areas to make this all happen. And the training, when things are comfy in my prosthetics, that's the easy part. That's the part that, you know, just happens. It's all the other stuff that's attached to this project, which takes it to the next level, you know. The fact that there's all the charity elements involved with doing this for Comic Relief and going and seeing the different organizations, charities that they make a difference towards. And just, yeah, getting on top of everything surrounding this project. It's been over a year in the making. I've been training since October of last year consistently. And, yeah, it's been a heck of a journey, and it is crazy to look back and to think back to when I first started about, you know, how jumping on the bike for a 40-minute, you know, indoor bike session felt like this is loads of cardio and fitness. And now, if I get a 40-minute session, I know that I'm in a serious taper, because otherwise it’s hours and hours.

Andrew: It's a gift, yeah.

Billy: It is.

Andrew: So, Will, you're a very experienced coach, a very gifted coach. You've raced a lot yourself. You've coached a lot yourself, and even amongst our TriDot podcast coaches that are regulars on the show, I mean, I hold you in very high regard. So, I know working with Billy has to be just a really special and cool opportunity, even for you, who is so experienced as a coach. What's this journey been like for you, getting to know Billy and just having, working through all the unique challenges that comes with seeing him through this challenge?

Will: Well, thank you. It's been really, really excellent. Billy is very coachable, and his sort of former professional athlete status, it does shine through. He has his attention to detail. You give him some advice and then he takes it, which is not always the case. Sometimes people will need to fail before they listen. But, time has been short on this project. I mean, we came into this in February– January, February– you know, it's not been long. Actual fact, when Rowan, Billy's manager, phoned me up about it, and when they said about Kona, “yeah, yeah, sure, you're 2025, right?” And “no, no, no, no, this year.” I was like, “oh, okay.” So I think the critical thing for this has been that we have not had much of a contingency, right. And, you know, Billy, Billy's very busy, he's commentating the Paralympics, his F1 commentary career and so on, amongst other things, and life. So he's had to give up an awful lot this year just to be able to vaguely try and fit this in and achieve it. And it's very rewarding to see him get to this stage now, in fantastic shape. And whilst Mark and I will point you in the direction, I always say this to athletes, it's you that has to actually do it, not me. And so we can only do so much, but if you don't put the effort in, you don't get up early, eat the right foods, et cetera, et cetera, then you won't, you'll fail. We can't do it for you. And the improvement that he's made, I mean, like, we started off, with like a 30-minute 5K, which is thoroughly decent, particularly for an athlete as a double amputee. You’re like, “okay, yes, this is a solid starting point. If we don't progress from here, but just manage to, you know, maintain some level of endurance, we should just about make it.” But in his last time trial, what did it do? 21:18.

Andrew: Wow!

Will: So, you know, it's a serious time. And were not training for Kona and a marathon, I think in the next couple of training cycles, maybe the next 12 weeks, we'd probably drop below 20, which shows you how much work Billy's put in. There are a few able-bodied athletes that would be able to make that time drop in the time that we've had. So yeah, immensely rewarding. I'm looking forward to Kona's a lot. There's lots to happen between now and race day. But I think it's always with, especially athletes like Billy, where there's a lot of emotion attached, and it's not just Billy, it's the cause and whatever else goes on behind this, all the logistics and the effort, it's that moment where we release– sounds like you’re Free Willy or something– but release you into the water. But there's nothing we can do, really, at that point. Obviously we're going to help with the handling and transitions and so on, but that's it. Our job is complete, effectively. And, you know, there's no coaching in Ironman, right? You can't coach on the course. So it's up to Billy to make those decisions. And again, I think that's something that's been fascinating and I would attribute to his racing career, his ability to formulate plans under stress, when things haven't gone quite right on, say, the 70.3s we've done, where, maybe, like the first race he forgot all his gels in transition. Okay, so now he's doing all the numbers for the blind misses. Now he's doing all his calculations on the fly, working out exactly what he's going to need to take at when or what minute, et cetera, et cetera. Which, you know, that was his first ever triathlon, I might say, apart from his kayaking adventure, you know, but in terms of a competitive triathlon, there it was, made a mistake, dealt with it, and moved forward, which is great to see.

Andrew: Yeah, no, and great to hear. And, Will, it's really cool to hear that time drop on the 5k time trial, because all the TriDot athletes in the audience listening, you know, they know what those times mean. I mean, there are full-bodied athletes that would love to have those times, Billy. I remember for me, when I first joined TriDot, you know, there's always a learning curve, right? There's always this curve of like, “okay, I'm trying this new training methodology. Let me see if it works.” You're hoping to see some results pretty quickly. I think the big light bulb moment for me, I had been trying to get my 5k under 20 minutes for a year or two on my own. And the closest I could come was like 20:40 something, like somewhere in there. And within like two months, I was knocking on the door of 19 minutes. And it was just like, “whoa, this stuff really works.” And it really helped me just immediately buy into the training, trust the training. Billy, as you were, I know in your professional career as a Formula 3 and 4 driver, you know, you go through all sorts of training regimens to prepare your body for that. You are no stranger to different workout methodologies. What did you think of TriDot when you got your hands on it, and what was kind of that moment for you that really helped you learn you could trust the training?

Billy: Yeah. I think, like Will's touched on there, I remember, my first test was, yeah, in March of this year around that 5k. And the running was, out of the three disciplines, the thing that, in the early stages of training for this, I thought would be the biggest challenge that I would face out of the three disciplines. I thought, “okay, I've cycled before.” Okay, I've not done the distances and the speeds required to break the record for Kona, but, you know, fundamentally I'd ridden a bike before. So I kind of had a set of prosthetics as a starting point that, okay, I could get some sessions done in. The swimming, again, like I said, I didn't need prosthetics for, but in the early stages, there was a lot of talk around this marathon, how we were going to tackle this marathon. The double amputee, Roderick Sewell, who set the world record in Kona, he did the marathon on running blades, but did the bike in a race chair. So he did it in a slightly different, you know, method to me. I was keen to cycle a conventional bike, cause I knew I could do it. And I sort of figured out a method of how I could do it. But when you do that, when you commit to using your leg muscles to do the 180-kilometer bike ride rather than your upper body, which would have been a slightly different, and maybe easier, call for me to make, it means that at least I start the marathon fresh. Well, now my legs would have done 180 kilometers as a cycling, and then I'm strapping these running blades on and trying to run a marathon. And I remember before I got these prosthetics in the end of February, there was a lot of concern whether my stumps would be able to take those sorts of loads. So yeah, there was a lot of question marks and bits and pieces, but yeah, doing that first 5k time trial, that was like the benchmark for a while. We stuck with that timing. And slowly, I just remember when I started doing Zone 2 runs and easy runs, as they're called on TriDot, they don't always feel easy– it didn't start this whole thing– but I remember doing these runs and having to walk for, you know, a decent, you know, chunk of time just to keep my heart rate, you know, in the right window for these easy runs. I remember starting to, over time, be able to just hold a really slow jog, and then slowly but surely, over time, just seeing those sort of numbers creep up, me being able to run a couple minutes per kilometer quicker for the same heart rate. Just, it took patience in moments, but equally, I was completely trusting that Will and Mark, my trainers, they were guiding me in the right direction, and that their countless years of experience of training all these different athletes would pay off. And at first it felt like, “oh, now I've got some running prosthetics that are comfy, I can just go out and run loads and get really good at running,” but the risk with, you know, balancing stress levels on the body, don't want to pick up any injuries and, you know, this all the time. So staying injury free, I think, was something that Will made clear to me. That was a priority that we needed to basically have all those months to get fit without, you know, throwing any unnecessary risks in there just for the sake of, you know, trying to do a couple of extra runs a week. And we started the process, and Will said those 5k times, they came down. I remember sitting there after a few months of having 30 minutes, or just under 30 minutes, is my best 5k time thinking, “I wonder how quick I can go today.” It was a hot day back in the UK, would you believe it, when me and Will retested for the first time, it was “okay, let's try and aim for maybe like 27.” And did 24 minutes, and it was like, “okay, wow, it's gone a lot further.”

Andrew: Wow.

Will: It was actually, it was like, we thought it was 28 degrees, I actually went back and checked the weather after, it was like 32 degrees, which, I mean, our normal, for our American audience, is about 26. So you know, for the UK, that was a hot day.

Andrew: Yeah, it's a nice fall day for Texas.

Will: Yeah.

Billy: Yeah, maybe cool over there, but for us, it was really warm.

Andrew: Sure.

Billy: Yeah, so three minutes quicker than I was hoping I was like, “okay, something is happened here, cause I've not done a whole lot of quick running here. I haven't gone out and tried to run a PB of 5k every other week. I've literally done a lot of really steady running to build my fitness, and it's taken over five minutes off my 5k time.” So at that point I'm like, “okay, whatever I'm doing is working.” And then we tested it about a month later, and it had come down to, yeah, like Will said, just over 21 minutes. And I was, like, baffled of where those gains came from, but equally, yeah, buzzing.

Will: Some of the belief starts happening as well, right?

Andrew: Wow, great point.

Will: Also, I think it's hard to understand where Billy's coming from as a double amputee. So for those that know, Billy has one above knee and one below knee amputation. And he gets 90% of his power on the bike from his below knee amputation, right. But in context, for those that have done single leg drills and stuff on the bike, on the turbo, and know how hard that is, he's going to be doing Kona effectively on one leg. His shorter leg really is stability for the bike and all the power is driven from one side. So it's not just a case of riding under ADK, it's riding under ADK with only one leg, and only part of that leg, you know, clearly, and then taking on a marathon. I think trying to contextualize that it's very hard to imagine, but at least think of those single leg drills that we've all done on the platform.

Andrew: Usually for a minute, usually for a minute at a time, right?

Will: So we're looking at it being around about 8 hours. So it’s extraordinary.

Andrew: I referenced something at the start of the show, Billy and Will, that there's a lot of, I call this a big story, right? The Big Island is always the Big Island. Kona is always a big race, a big weekend. But Billy's story, to me, is extra big here, because there's just a lot that goes with it. There's a lot of firsts, right? He's trying to become the first double amputee to do this in Kona for an organization like Comic Relief. He's the first double amputee trying to break the record and go faster than anybody's ever gone before. And he's the first one, Will, doing this with TriDot, and doing this with a TriDot coach, and doing this with the artificial intelligence generated training. And, man, Will, it's so interesting, because the athletes in our audience, who are very savvy with what TriDot is and what TriDot does, will know how well the algorithms and the technology tailors the training to each athlete, right. And even within that, Billy is an exceptional athlete in a very edge case. And so, just as Coach, partnering with the AI, partnering with Billy to make this all happen, man, talk us through just what's happening in the algorithms and in the training program that's being generated for Billy.

Will: Yeah, it's been staggering, being able to apply this technology to Billy's training. And, you know, it’s the beautiful layering of the training, which is so key. Because we can measure stress accurately. This is so key; I bore people about this continually, for anyone on a lesson, in the supermarket queue, wherever. But with Billy's lifestyle, not lifestyle, his work, life-work balance, there are periods where he is away in the Far East, or wherever, and he can't take all his equipment, for example. So his training isn't a smooth, linear line. Life isn't, training rarely is, but in particular for Billy with his travels and his job. So having something that can deload and reload appropriately, so that with the limited time we have, we are massively maximizing the best training in that moment. That's been so key with such a short timeline. But yeah, I mean, the first athlete to have been trained with a coach and artificial intelligence as a double amputee, you know, in the world, ever. This is exciting. I say about Parasport, there's a lot of firsts. Everything is unique, but this is no more unique, it's historical.

Andrew: Will, I'm curious if at all, and your knowledge of TriDot and, again, your ability as a coach is top-notch, so you may not have needed any extra input, but I'm curious if Jeff Booher, as our CEO, who knows everything about the ins and outs of how the data and the AI is working behind the scenes for an athlete, and then Guy Schecter, I'm going to give him a shout-out, that's a name most of our audience won't have heard, but behind the scenes, we have staff data scientists. We're that cool of a company. I just, I'm curious if Jeff or Guy have weighed in at all on maybe some of the training decisions that needed to be made for Billy.

Will: We have and we haven't, haven’t we? Sort of, we've discussed some bits and pieces. One of the things that's been fascinating is that whilst we can layer beautifully for all the disciplines, the one thing that is difficult to predict is Billy's run. And this, I mean, many may have seen, those who have followed the Paralympics for years and seen people running on blades, and it's very, the blade, the more power you put into it, the more you get back. Alright? Now, that's not necessarily saying, well, rather it falls off a cliff the slower you go, right. It gets to a point where if you go slowly enough, it's just like running on stilts, because it's not getting any feedback, no spring. And so, we've been working off new thresholds, like that 21:18, great, amazing. But that doesn't extrapolate up in the same way that it does for an able-bodied person. So we're having to make some informed decisions, I would say, educated decisions about what that means for later in the race. And that's the difficulty, is working with that sort of technology. But the swim and the bike are very on point. And the run is, as well, at the quick levels. It’s as the distance increases, then, you know, then we're having to sort of apply years of experience, really. And I hope we get it right.

Andrew: And the beautiful thing for TriDot athletes is all this technology is operating behind the scenes, and all we have to do is fire up the app and go do whatever training session it gives us each day. Billy, has that been the case for you? You just kind of, you get to trust Coach Will and trust that the AI is taking care of you?

Billy: Yeah, exactly that is. You know, our relationship as, you know, coach to athlete has been, you know, when things are going really well with stump health and those factors, I go out, and I look at my TriDot, and I see what training I need to do, and I go and get it done. And when I'm in those different climates, I can adjust it for how hot it is, how humid it is, you know, with the TriDot, you know, the options you've got in the app to adjust your training loads and your paces for different conditions. So that, again, has been of key help, particularly earlier on in the year when I was doing my, I guess, my base building in the early stage of my training, just knowing that if I turn up to somewhere that's 35 degrees, I might have to run a bit slower and TriDot doing that for me.

Andrew: Talk to us about the deeper meaning here, you know, what you're trying to do for Comic Relief. You know, What does Comic Relief do, especially for our American audience who maybe has heard of it but isn't as familiar with that as an organization? And why are they the organization you kind of chose to align yourself with?

Billy: Yeah, so it all started, like I say, when they reached out to me, and I knew of Comic Relief, because during my younger years at school, we would do– we would call them ‘mufty days’ back in the UK– where you'd basically be able to come into school in your own clothes rather than school uniform.

Andrew: Always a treat.

Billy: Yeah, it was a treat. And we basically put a pound in a pot, and that was, you know, going towards Red Nose Day, and basically all in order to raise money for Comic Relief. And Comic Relief, they're a charity that supports so many different types of charities around the UK. They fight homelessness. They fight all sorts of different battles and problems that the UK, you know, people in the UK face. Hunger as well, just to name a couple. But it just really struck out to me. I remember seeing some of the projects for the first time when I did my first Comic Relief challenge back in 2021. And just actually meeting the individuals that really use the funds from Comic Relief and how vital they are to support the incredible work they do and the selfless work they do. Comic Relief is based around community. It's all about supporting projects that help the whole community come together and to thrive. And, yeah, just being a part of that, raising, you know, the amount of money we did in the first challenge, and that completely blew our expectations in my mind. And I couldn't have asked for that first challenge we did to go any better. The scale of this challenge is bonkers. I mean, even Comic Relief themselves, this is the type of challenge that they have never put anyone through before, because normally Comic Relief challenges are all done in house. So when I did the first challenge, it was all organized by Comic Relief. They had their own medical team surrounding that challenge. And there was no timeline to get to the finish. It was just about doing the challenge, getting from A to B over 4 days, doing those 140 miles. This challenge, I'm in the hands of the IRONMAN team. It's a professional event that Comic Relief have no control over whatsoever.

Will: Comic Relief have never done anything like this, right. There is no control whatsoever. This is a World Championships. And, you know, one of our biggest concerns early on was making cutoff, right? Because Roderick's record is half an hour inside of cutoff. Now, that's a toilet stop and a puncture, right?

Andrew: Yeah, so true.

Will: So, we had to shoot for the record for risk of failure, right? And, again, if you get into, you know, Billy’s, actually you’re a really solid swimmer, it turns out–

Andrew: Nice, Billy. Good. Yeah, good.

Will: –over the course of the last year. But like, then bike was a big concern. It's such a long way, right? Because you don't hit T2 and you miss cutoff, no one cares. You're not continuing on. And that's why it's unlike anything else. And rightly so, it has to protect the integrity of the World Championships. So, I think that's worth, you know, remembering there is considerable risk here for Comic Relief and for the project, but very different to anything they've done.

Andrew: Yeah, and we all believe in Billy, though. We all believe in Billy. And, Billy, you referenced getting to see firsthand some of the work of Comic Relief. Can you just kind of share one example, maybe, that made an impression on you, like getting to see boots on the ground, what they're doing in the community?

Billy: Yeah, I remember I went and saw a charity that basically is based in London in the UK, and it's a charity that takes kids from an environment where it would be very easy for them to fall into gangs, street violence, you know, lots of stuff that in the UK affects a lot of young individuals and can have a really negative effect and impact on their lives. And through that, you know, that first project I went and saw in 2021, I saw these individuals that had this energy, had, you know, a lot of positivity to give the world, and they would come into this, you know, this boxing environment where there were coaches that were volunteering to be there. They weren't getting paid to be there, they were volunteering their time to help kids of the community, you know, learn skills like discipline, hard work, and to keep them away from the stuff that's out there in the world and where they're vulnerable, which is fundamentally on the streets. Kids are vulnerable to get affected by stuff like gang violence, knife crime, and just seeing all these kids coming in with loads of energy, and hearing their stories about their friends, where they'd been in situations where their friends had got involved with gangs, and it hadn't, you know, things had completely spiraled in their lives. And then hearing how they stumbled across Fight for Change, this organization was called, and it really did that. They were teaching these skills and to these kids about how to, you know, box and stuff, but not in a way where these kids weren't going in there thinking they were cool. And they were learning skills, and discipline, and hard work, and they were getting this incredible experience and this wisdom, and they were able to talk to each other about, you know, issues that they had to deal with and situations they'd found themselves in. And it just is a real safe space for kids to be kids, to learn great values that will serve them well in their later life. And I just really, yeah, felt the impact of being in that situation and knowing that charity, that organization, Fight for Change, that wouldn't have been possible to run without the support of Comic Relief and the funds that they were providing them. So yeah, when I went there, I'd say that was my first experience of a project Comet Relief funded, where I was like, “wow, this does incredible work.” And potentially, you're talking about saving people's lives that could be, you know, where they could end up in the wrong situation. So yeah, you realize the impact quite quickly.

Andrew: Yeah, I personally am going to add to your donation tally for two main reasons: I mean, I'm genuinely, you know, moved by what you're doing, right, and moved by what Comic Relief does. And on an emotional level, I was on their website, and they have this really cool toggle where you can toggle to certain donation amounts you're thinking of making. They tell you on the screen, tangibly, if you donate this much, it's going to provide this many meals to somebody at a homeless shelter, or it's going to provide this many sets of clothes to an underprivileged child, or it's going to do this, or it's going to do that. As a fairly new father, when I saw how many sets of clothes I could be buying, right, for some kid in need, I was just weeping at my desk, like, oh my gosh, please, yes, let me put those kind of clothes on a kid. That may or may not be exactly what it goes to, but just knowing the tangible of the difference you're making is really amazing. And then two, Billy, when I see the amount on the back end of this, when you finish the race and you break the record, and we see, oh, this whole project helped raise X for Comic Relief, I want to know that I was a part of that tally. So I'll be donating personally, and for our listeners, for our TriDot-ers in the audience, you're not just getting behind another Kona athlete, you're not just getting behind somebody who's really cool, although he is really cool, you are getting behind a fellow TriDot athlete who's doing something really cool. Billy, how can our people support you in this cause?

Billy: Yeah, so the link is in my bio on my social media channels. So my social media tags are @billymongerracing. You can go to the link in my bio on any of my social channels, and you can find the link there that will take you to Comic Relief's website. And that is where you'll find ComicReliefChallenge/Billy. That is where you can go ahead, see, like you said, the scale of all the different donations and the impact it will have by them telling you where that money will go. And, yeah, that's where you can hopefully help us to make a difference.

Andrew: Yeah, and we'll put that link in the podcast episode description for today. So wherever you're listening, that will be there as well. Billy's a great Instagram follow. I followed him last night, and Billy just scrolling through, I saw pictures of you riding bikes with George Russell on the Silverstone track. I saw pictures and video of you commenting at the Paris Olympics, right, for Channel 4. I saw pictures and video of you training with Will Usher, getting ready for this race. So final question for our main set here: how are you feeling about racing in Kona? What are you looking the most forward to?

Billy: Do you know what, like, it's always a bit of a daunting prospect when a race day comes around and you're like, oh my god, all the work I've put in, this is the day where I've got to show it. But equally, it's felt like such a long time in the making. And yeah, I just feel really excited now to get out to Hawaii and to start to try and soak in the history of Kona, how special of an event it is. And I just want to, yeah, make the most of my time out there and really make it a really memorable few days. And hopefully we can accomplish something great at the end of it. But, yeah, just reflecting on the whole journey. It's been an incredible experience to date. And I'm excited now to put that hard work into action.

Cool down theme: Great set everyone! Let’s cool down.

Andrew: We always end our show with the coach cool down tip of the week where one of our TriDot coaches just gives us a triathlon training tip of some kind. Sometimes it's related to the episode we just talked about. Sometimes it's not. And Will, what I really am interested in hearing today, as our coach cool down tip of the week, is what is one principle you have coached into Billy for this Kona challenge that our athletes listening today can apply to their own training and racing? So Will, we'll call this the Billy Monger Kona Podcast Cool Down Training Tip. What you got for us?

Will: It’s a mantra, really. And I pulled this from, or borrowed it, I should say, from the 2003 Rugby World Cup squad, the England squad. And it's a chap called Lawrence Dallaglio for all the rugby fans. He said, “you build the score,” right? And what he meant by that is it's no good going out the gate going crazy in the first 5 minutes, and then not following it up and sort of crashing and burning. And I think that it really reflects, one, the training we've done with TriDot, we alluded to with Billy, you have patience, right. With his own tune, just letting it come to you, but you've got to do the work, right. But you let it come to you. And the same with the racing. Billy's very good at, and understands, his zones of his heart rate and we know where the limits are, right. So we're not going to go crazy, it's the World Championships. And we just build ourselves into that race. And I think, you know, that applied itself really well to training, but also massively to racing.

Andrew: Billy, did that mantra make a big difference for you in your build up here to Kona?

Billy: Yeah, definitely, cause I'm a racing driver, we're impatient, we want to do things as fast as possible. And sometimes you've got to go slightly slower to go faster in the long run.

Outro: Thanks for joining us. Make sure to subscribe and share the TriDot podcast with your triathlon crew. For more great tri content and community, connect with us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Ready to optimize your training? Head to tridot.com and start your free trial today! TriDot – the obvious and automatic choice for triathlon training.

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