Words by Andy Waterman
Photos by Jacob Zocherman
Matthieu Bonne grew up in Belgium, and like a lot of energetic young boys, sport was his life. He rode horses, competed in judo and track and field and loved basketball. “Basketball was my biggest passion,” he says, “I always wanted to become a professional basketball player.”
As he grew older and left school and the opportunities to compete in basketball became fewer, he drifted into endurance sports through an unorthodox route: the mountains. On his first vacation outside of Europe, he travelled to Bali, and in climbing Rinjani, the volcano on the island of Lombok, he discovered that pushing his body into uncomfortable places brought with it an addictive sense of achievement and purpose. That led to climbing Mont Blanc in the Alps, and that in turn led to the desert and the Marathon des Sables, the brutal multi day race across the Sahara where athletes must carry much of their own supplies. It was in the desert that Bonne discovered his talent: “Marathon des Sables was the first time I really saw that endurance sports was something for me,” he says. “I was like a diesel. The first few days were really tough, but for me, there was a switch in the middle of the week: everyone was getting tired but I was getting better. It was a sign that I was made for endurance sports.”
That race led to an Ironman triathlon (10hrs 30mins), swimming the English Channel, completing eight full-length triathlons in eight days on each of the Canary Islands, swimming the length of the Belgian coastline (67km), and cycling the greatest distance ever completed in seven days. “That was my first world record,” says Matthieu. “We travelled to Arizona for that and I cycled 3619km in seven days. I’m very proud of that one.” Five months after that, in the late summer of 2023, he took his appetite for world records to the water, breaking the world record for the greatest distance swum in the ocean, covering 131km in the Bay of Corinth in Greece over the course of 60hrs and 55mins. “Mentally that was one of the hardest ones,” he says, “61 hours with your head in sea salt and darkness. The satisfaction after was enormous.”
With swimming and biking records to his name he turned his attention to running. “That’s what motivates me,” he says, “to do a little bit of everything and to become great in everything. But of course all the records in running are so hard.”
With his pedigree and experience in multiday challenges, Bonne believed he would have greatest success in the longest possible records, notably the six-day event, which had been held since the 90’s by the Greek great, Yannis Kouros.
His first attempt came in March 2024 in Belgium and the weather was, says Bonne, “terrible.” After 800km in rain, wind and cold temperatures, Bonne was taken to hospital for treatment to a lung issue. The record would have to wait until the fall, when Bonne and his crew arrived in Hungary to race the six-day World Championships on the shore of Lake Balaton. True to his word, Bonne broke the record in style, running 1,046km (650 miles), 10km more than the mark set by Kouros in 2005.
With a shift to Mount to Coast shoes, Matthieu began to work towards breaking another of Kouros’ records, the 48hr mark of 473km set in 1996. Training took him to altitude in Kenya, where his unorthodox training raised eyebrows among the elite marathon runners in Iten. No one in Kenya runs ultras, so the idea of spending a weekend completing back-to-back 125km runs at 5min/km is completely alien to them. Not that that’s something you see in more established ultra circles either. “My personal view on training is probably very different to any coach,” he says. “I want to train and put myself in uncomfortable positions so I can learn about myself and when the real challenge comes, I can fall back on my training. My goal is to make my training harder than the actual challenge itself.”
Even when he’s training at altitude, Bonne likes to maintain a varied training program, with pilates, cycling, and weights to keep his body strong and able to deal with the load. “I’m someone who responds well to very high-volume training,” he says, “it’s just personal. I know what my body needs.”
The first attempt at the 48hr record came in Taipei in the spring of 2025 and it didn’t go to plan. Some time at home in Belgium between the training camp in Kenya and the race in Asia led to Matthieu picking up the flu, which led to him pulling out of the Taipei race after a few hours. Back to the drawing board. Attempt two went better. He put himself in quarantine after the second Kenya trip to avoid picking up any illnesses, and by the time he arrived in Poland he felt strong, and confident. “I was in the best shape of my life ever. Two weeks before, I put it on my Instagram that the record WILL fall – I just felt it. That’s what happened.”
Bonne ran 485km in Poland (301 miles) to claim the record. “The plan of attack was pretty clear,” he says. “Start fast the first 24hrs to try and get as many km as possible, then try to hold for the remaining 24hrs. Bartosz, my friend and also a Mount to Coast athlete, was there and he pushed me a little bit harder. For a world record you need a little bit of luck and all those things were by my side.”
Bonne ran the whole 485km in a single pair of Mount to Coast R1s, a shoe he loves due to its spacious toe box: “in the past, my feet always swell and there was no space and there was a lot of pain,” he says, “but with the Mount to Coast, my feet are swelling but there’s space, so there’s no pain. Plus it’s durable, it’s light – it’s nice.”
The toll of the 48hr race on Bonne’s body and nervous system was huge, and since the race, he’s exercised but he hasn’t run in five weeks. That looks set to change this week: he’ll be back lacing up his R1s, and building towards the next extraordinary record.
Discover more about Matthieu Bonne by tuning into the full podcast.