On December 30, 2025, my good friend Leanne—hailing from Australia, the home of my kids’ favorite show, Bluey—sent me an Instagram reel by Sean Conway. The post detailed the “496 Challenge” for January 2026, opening with a daunting statistic: only 10% of those who start actually finish. At the time, I didn’t know much about Sean and was fully focused on my Ironman 70.3 Colombo Relay training, so I simply replied with a “:O” emoji and moved on.

But the seed had been planted.

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