This is the first conversation Andy and I ever filmed together - day four or five of a training camp in Fuerteventura, in the Canary Islands, right at the end of January. We'd known each other online for a couple of weeks by that point. This was the start of the Kona Dream Project, and looking back at it now, it's strange watching myself not really know yet what I was about to sign up for.
How I found Andy
I'd wanted Hawaii for years before any of this - ever since reading Iron War and falling down the rabbit hole of Ironman documentaries. I'd heard of Andy before, but it was one specific video about something called the Kona Dream Project that actually stopped me scrolling. I remember pacing the room afterwards, genuinely unsure if I was good enough to even apply. I backed myself anyway and got in touch.
What was meant to be a 20-minute introductory chat ran past an hour. We just got on. I think a lot of what I was hoping to find came through in that call - the discipline, the attention to detail, how much thought he'd clearly put into what this project actually was.
Not just a start line
For me, the Kona Dream Project was never only about getting to that start line in Hawaii. It's the whole process - physical, mental, disciplinary. My mindset, my physiology, all of it. I said to Andy early on that I was looking forward to digging into every part of it, no stone unturned, and genuinely meeting a better version of myself by the end, whatever the result on the day.
Andy's side of it is similar: take someone from wherever they're starting and close the gaps - physiology, a weak muscle group, a mental block, whatever it turns out to be. Fuelling, hydration, the whole holistic approach, not just the training plan on its own. As much time face to face as we can manage, built around a full-time job and whatever hours that leaves.
The camp itself
This was my first training camp of any kind. Andy invited me on fairly last minute and I just threw myself into it - a chance to meet new people, train somewhere different, and get a feel for what working with him would actually be like day to day. Being at a base level of fitness around people who'd been doing this for years was humbling, but I was taking it hour by hour, and having the structure and the feedback there made it click faster than training alone ever had.
Andy's done this particular camp for something like eleven or twelve years running. He talked about Kona the way a lot of people in this sport do - something he chased himself back in 2009 and 2011, let slip away, then went back for again in 2022. He's open about not having all the answers either. What he's got is the experience of having gone through it himself, and wanting to be the vehicle for someone else to get there.
Looking back
Watching this back now, after Tallinn, after South Africa, after Japan, it's an odd one. None of what's happened since had happened yet. It was just two people who'd met online a few weeks earlier, sat by a pool in Fuerteventura, deciding to give this an honest go. I'm glad we filmed it.
