Mayank Vaid prepares for HK360Xtreme, swimming, cycling and running as friends ask ‘where does the madness end?’

Mayank Vaid will swim around Hong Kong Island, run 100km and cycle 215km in his latest extreme triathlon

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Mayank Vaid is embarking on the HK360Xtreme – a 44km swim around Hong Kong Island, 100km run and 215km cycle. Photos: Handout

Published: 3:48pm, 15 Oct 2020Updated: 10:47pm, 15 Oct 2020

A Hong Kong lawyer is embarking on a crazy 360km triathlon, undeterred by friends’ questioning when he will draw the line under his endurance feats. Mayank Vaid has already cycled, swam and run from London to Paris in record time, and completed the first EverestMan, by swimming 9km, running the height of Everest and then cycling it.

On October 24, he will swim 45km around Hong Kong Island, run 100km and cycle 215km, calling his challenge HK360Xtreme.

“This is the learning curve. Someone asked me ‘when does this madness end?’ But we don’t ask ourselves the same question when we get to some other position of learning or knowledge. We don’t call it madness, we call it exploration, we call it a learning curve,” Vaid said.

“We want to learn more. We never ask ourselves this question when we reach a certain financial return or salary, we want to make more. That is a perfectly normal expectation. But for an endurance athlete, it seems to be madness.”

Mayank Vaid swimming around Hong Kong Island as he trains for the Arch to Arc challenge.

“People think you’re just pushing harder and further, but what they don’t see is you are constantly learning,” he said.