This Man Is The First Malaysian To Complete The 2,260km Swiss Ultra Deca Triathlon

After pushing 250km ultra marathon, he decided to attempt 10 times the distance and successfully completed it!

Once again, Lau has become the first ever Malaysian to complete yet another tough marathon, this time the Swiss Ultra Deca Triathlon.

In 10 days, he took on 38km of swimming, 1,800km of cycling and 422km of running, bringing the total distance to 2,260km.

This has been confirmed by the International Utra Triathlon Association (IUTA).

The Swiss race took place in a small town called Buchs, just outside of Zurich, Switzerland. The swim leg was held in a 50-meter swimming pool, cycling on a 9km route closed off to cars, and running in a 1.2km loop.

Since this is known to be quite a brutal race, it only had 10 participants in total, and Lau was one of them.

“On the first swim of the race, my whole face and body felt so numb as I hit the frigid cold water at 20 degrees Celsius,” he told ToughAsia.

You probably would have guessed by now, the fact that Lau comes from a tropical country like Malaysia, racing in an 11-degree Celsius climate was challenging.

​ Nevertheless, the first two days went by and he was able to complete the race within the Cut Off Time (COT) of 20 hours.

However, on the third day, a fellow participant noticed that Lau's bicycle was not suitable for the cycling leg. He then offered Lau his spare bicycle that had aero bars and was made of carbon.

“The winds were so strong, that I was barely cycling on my bike. The aerobars enabled me to cut through the wind better, though it took me awhile to balance myself and I was cycling like a snake,” Lau shared.

On the ninth day, he was running on less than four hours of sleep since the race began. His tired body nearly failed to finish within the COT.

"There were times when I was practically sleeping on the bike, so I decided to stop and take 5-10 minute naps during the cycling leg," he said.

But Lau was determined to finish what he started, especially when the race was to end on Merdeka Day.

Now, you may be wondering where does one find the time, energy and passion to accomplish something like this.

The 29-year-old is a Red Ribbon Youth icon appointed by the Ministry of Health and one of his goals is to raise awareness and promote safer sex among youth people.

This is why you will always see Lau carry a mascot teddy bear from the AIDS foundation in his races around the world.