Triathlon events are usually based in one town or one specific area, but Martyn Clarke’s endurance swim, bike, run challenge is going to take him across Europe.

The 49-year-old, from Wigan, will travel across five countries as he plans to swim, bike and run over 750 miles from Germany to Manchester in seven days to raise money for charity.

The challenge, named ‘Triathlon Impossible’, will see Clarke start with a 7km swim in Frankfurt on Saturday 24 June followed by over 700 miles of cycling through Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and from the south of England to Headingly Stadium, the home of Leeds Rhinos.

It will then be a 92km run from Leeds to Leigh Sports Village, the stadium of Super League team Leigh Leopards, to finish the challenge on Friday 30 June.

“This is definitely not your normal challenge,” Clarke said. “It’s going to be a triple header of endurance events, first the London Marathon, then a few weeks later the Leeds Marathon, with the challenge across Europe rounding it all off in June.

“The theme of all my challenges have been the number seven because of the connection to Rob Burrow, so Triathlon Impossible is seven days and over 750 miles. The hard part was taking the plunge and telling my wife and family that I was thinking about doing a triathlon across Europe because it’s really going to push me to my limits.”

Former Leeds Rhinos scrum-half Rob Burrow MBE has been the inspiration behind Clarke’s previous and upcoming challenges for the way he’s inspired others since being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2019.

Although this will be his longest and greatest challenge yet, Clarke is no stranger to taking on a challenge, completing seven middle distance triathlons in seven days in December 2021, raising over £40,000 in total for the MND Association.

“Seeing Rob’s documentary on TV struck a chord with me because I’m a former rugby league amateur coach and my son plays the same position as Rob,” Clarke said. “When I saw it on TV, I thought that's just not right, we’ve got to help.

“Then, when Kevin Sinfield did his endurance marathons, it sparked something inside me. I thought I want to help but what could I do? I like endurance sports, I like triathlon, I’m not particularly the best or fastest at it, but when I'm digging into the ground I take quite a bit of putting down to make me stop. I'll just keep going.”

The Motor Neurone Disease Association is one of four charities who Clarke is raising money for, alongside Leeds Hospitals Charity, The Darby Rimmer MND Foundation and My Name’5 Doddie Foundation.

“’In a world full of adversity, we must still dare to dream’ is a quote from Rob and it’s such a good quote to back this project because for a lot of people it would probably be a dream of a project,” Clarke added.

“We’re doing it for four really important causes. Leeds Hospital Charity need to raise £5 million to build what will be the first ever bespoke MND centre to treat patients and also support their families. There's nowhere like that at the moment.

“For this challenge, we’re bringing together the sporting community. Rugby league is at the heart of it all with Rob, but we’ve got the football community who are impacted by this too, so we have combined the football community through The Darby Rimmer Foundation and the rugby union community through Doddie Weir, and it’s all wrapped together by the MND Association.”

Clarke did his first triathlon in 2001 at Helsby Sprint Triathlon and has gone on to do multiple events including over the sprint, standard and middle distance, as well as completing marathons around the world.

Clarke will run the London Marathon in April before partnering Ian Flatt at Leeds Marathon three weeks later.

“Everyone knows for triathlon or an IRONMAN you need time on your feet,” Clarke said. “This is no different, but I've got to train a lot longer. You'd normally give yourself 12 to 16 weeks to train for a high-level endurance event.

“I've been training since Christmas and just trying to build a base fitness level up, being really monitored quite strictly by Carnegie School of Sport, who've been fantastic advising me on nutrition, psychology reviews, physiological testing, which has been a big help.

“There's a company called A1 Performance Studio and Adam Lamb has been training me every week since the turn of the year. We're on the weights, we're on the assault bike, we're doing everything we can to be physically ready.

“You can't really fully train to cross 750 miles in seven days, but you can replicate run, bike, run - run, bike, run, and then as soon as we see some sunlight and, with April around the corner, I will jump in the open water and start getting those miles in the lake.”

You can follow Martyn’s progress on social media @clarkemartyn1 on Twitter and @triathlonimpossible2023 on Instagram.

To find out more about Martyn’s challenge please visit his donation page here.