'Running was brutal, now I'm in the Ironman'

Billy Monger will compete in the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii, raising money for Comic Relief

Former racing driver Billy Monger could hardly run 5km without feeling pain and discomfort from his prosthetic legs at the start of the year.

But this weekend he will run a full marathon as part of a gruelling 140.6-mile Ironman to raise money for Comic Relief.

Both Monger's legs were amputated after he was involved in a near-fatal crash at Donington Park in 2017.

The 25-year-old said he has had to relearn how to do everything since the accident and is now relishing the challenge facing him in Hawaii on Saturday.

"It's competitive sport at the highest level," he told Game Changers for BBC Radio Surrey.

"It's seen as being the toughest one-day endurance event in the world.

"It's up there with the likes of climbing Mount Everest in terms of the physical strain on the body."

Monger, who is from Charlwood in Surrey, was a kart racer as a child before joining the F4 British Championship in 2016.

He has since forged a career in broadcasting, featuring in the BBC series Celebrity Race Across the World and completing Billy's Big Challenge in 2021, where he walked, cycled and kayaked across Britain and raised more than £3m for Comic Relief.

Monger completed Ironman 70.3 Weymouth in six hours, 41 minutes and 41 seconds. That course consisted of a 1.9km swim off the coast of the Dorset town before a 90km ride, followed by 21.1km on foot.

This weekend, he will compete in the longer Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, aiming to be the youngest double amputee to complete the course.

Competitors are required to finish the course within 17 hours, and must reach target times for each part of the race.

"It's a 3.8km ocean swim, 180km cycling exposed to cross winds, volcanic barren lava fields and then you run around for a marathon at the end," he said.

"It's going to be a hell of a challenge."

Germany's Laura Philipp won the women's world championship in Nice last month, finishing eight minutes clear of Great Britain's Kat Matthews in second.

'It's crazy to think how far I've come'

Monger will swim, cycle and run at the ironman in Hawaii

Monger has one leg amputated above the knee and the other below.

He said "everything I've done since my accident has been a learning process".

"When I took on this challenge I could cycle but not for very long," he added.

"In the last challenge I got a lot of lower back pain. When I started running, I was really struggling to run more than 5k without getting into discomfort and it was really tough and brutal on my body."

Monger and his team have made modifications to his bike and prosthetics over time to make riding and running more comfortable and increase his performance.

"There's been a lot of learning. It's crazy to think how far I've come in a year's time," he said.

"I've always been a competitive person and sport is at the heart of what I do.

"With this challenge, what I've really enjoyed is getting back into competitive sport and finding that inner athlete within me, desire to win and be the best I can possibly be."

Laura Philipp, of Germany, won the women's world championship in Nice with a time of eight hours, 45 minutes and 15 seconds