Endurance fundraiser Matthew Hollingham talks to Victoria Heath about getting the most out of travel
Hollingham’s travel tips
– Travel helps you find purpose and perspective
– Preparation makes challenging adventures possible
– Experience a journey kilometre by kilometre
For most people, completing a marathon would be a once-in-a-lifetime achievement. Now imagine doing 37 marathons back-to-back – and the entire challenge preceded by a 3.8-kilometre swim and followed by a bike ride longer than the Tour de France. Such a feat seems superhuman, but for 25-year-old PhD student Matthew Hollingham, it’s a reality he has embarked upon: travelling from the Arctic Circle to North Africa in a triathlon spanning 61 consecutive days.
The inspiration behind such physical endurance is his late fiancée, Lovisa Arnesson-Cronhamre, who was killed in a road accident in 2023. Originally from Hertfordshire, Matthew met Lovisa at the University of Glasgow before they both relocated to Pennsylvania State University to study for their PhDs. One month into the move, Lovisa was on a run when she was killed by a speeding car.
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‘It was obviously the worst time of my life, and a lot of close friends’ and family’s worst time too,’ says Matthew.
Since then, Matthew has been completing endurance events to raise money for children’s charities, chosen to honour Lovisa’s dream of one day becoming a mother.
This isn’t the first physical challenge Matthew has undertaken in his fundraising efforts. In 2024, he completed ‘Mount Neverest’, hiking up and down Mount Nittany in Pennsylvania 49 times – the equivalent elevation of Mount Everest. But this triathlon, spanning ten countries, is his biggest challenge yet.
Training for such an endeavour involved 20–25 hours a week of exercise, including three weekly gym sessions and runs through hilly, rocky and uneven terrain. ‘You essentially just push your body to a point where it is over-trained and then dial it down,’ he says. ‘It’s training to make sure my knees don’t break, or that my feet don’t completely collapse.’
For Matthew, preparation for the triathlon came with its joys. ‘When you do enough long-distance running, you become almost like a car. You can go anywhere and not really suffer or be tired, which is quite fun. You get to see a lot of stuff,’ he says.
During the triathlon, Matthew follows a strict routine, with no rest days from the Arctic Circle to North Africa. ‘I wake up, and then I have about half an hour before I’m driving to where I begin my run. I sit in a car for half an hour while I eat lunch, then run again. Then I get back to a campsite with the caravan, shower and eat, stretch, and do it again.’
To power through his back-to-back marathons, Matthew listens to audiobooks or The Rest Is History podcasts. ‘They have more than 600 episodes,’ he says. ‘And I intend to go through every single one.’
The challenge has already brought some memorable encounters. Running along Sweden’s coast, Matthew came face to face with reindeer and moose. In the Arctic Circle, meanwhile, he marvelled at leaves beneath the near-freezing water, perfectly preserved from the previous autumn. But perhaps the most important takeaway Matthew has gleaned from this challenge has little to do with the physical feat itself. Although fundraising remains a key motivation, sharing Lovisa’s story has made him realise just how many people are carrying their own experiences of loss.
‘What’s really surprised me is that when you talk to people about death, they sympathise – but they’ve often experienced a significant loss themselves,’ he says, ‘a loss that they don’t get the opportunity to think about as much as they’d like.’
Matthew is encouraging people to remember their loved ones through his journey; donors can ask him to dedicate a particular section of his triathlon to someone they’ve lost. ‘That’s what I’m really grateful for,’ he says. ‘People can talk about the loved ones they’ve lost. It brings people together.’
