competed in a singular triathlon. He now holds a world record. This February, Braun became the first person to ever complete seven Olympic-distance triathlons on all seven continents.
The Stanford alumnus accomplished the herculean feat in just seven days. “When I entered an OCD recovery program, we set completing a triathlon as the pinnacle goal for me to work through all of the mental health tools that I was learning,” said Braun in a TV interview. “So I thought, ‘What an epic way to complete this OCD journey.’”A post shared by Raymond Braun (@raymondbraun)A post shared by Raymond Braun (@raymondbraun)A post shared by Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon (@escapealcatraztri)Braun started his epic journey in Antarctica and ended in Miami, with stops in South Africa, Australia, Dubai, Spain, and Brazil in between.
The odyssey was taxing: Braun was pushing himself to the physical and mental brink and then flying across the world–only sleeping for a maximum of two hours at a time.
The pain was part of the plan. “I wanted to take on a challenge that is so extreme, so unthinkable, something that nobody had ever done before, to show, ‘Look what therapy did for me,'” he said.