Ultra-marathon runner Sean Bell opens up on his record-breaking run around Australia, his secret injury blow and the death that drove him

Sean Bell has become the fastest man to run around Australia, but he was holding onto a secret that threatened to derail his quest before it began. He opens up on his arduous 13,383km journey, the tragedy that drove him and more.

Sean Bell completed a record run around Australia.

As Sean Bell embarked on his record-breaking run around Australia he was holding on to a massive secret.

Just seven weeks before Bell’s pursuit to run 13,383km in less than 169 days, 15 hours and 31 minutes – a record set by his mentor Dave Alley in 2015 – the Melbourne ultra-marathon man discovered he had a stress fracture in his tibia (lower leg).

Six years of dedicated training – including runs from Cairns to Melbourne, completing 50 marathons in 50 days and a record ultra-marathon across Bali – months of logistic planning and so much blood, sweat and tears looked to be down the drain.

What would he tell his sponsors and support crew, who had invested so much?

What if he was forced to pull out early and was viewed as a failure?

Sean Bell in Sydney on the run. He had to put on a brave face after going into the journey with a stress fracture in his tibia. Picture: David Swift

Bell went ahead with the run despite the setback.

“I had to keep it quiet from key people involved like support crew, sponsors, my family, my friends, not to worry everyone,” Bell said.

“I just trusted that if I could get to the start line healthy enough that I’d be OK and the body is a wonderful thing.”

The devastating blow derailed Bell’s painstaking preparation for the journey – named Run for Wishes, raising funds for sick children through the Make A Wish foundation.

Four days out from his quest – which began on March 10 at the MCG – the 26-year-old was in pain while running 5km.

How on earth was he going to run more than 80km every day for 169 days?

“It definitely scared me and I thought, ‘I don’t know if I can do this, this could be a real public failure and that sucks’, but I have to just start,” Bell said.

“I had sponsors who backed me and said, ‘Are you going to do this?’ and I said, ‘Yeah, we are starting March 10’.

“You can freak out when you can’t do it at the time, but I just had to keep trying to remind myself, ‘Yes, eight weeks of limited loading is incredibly hard, but at the same time it is six years of work’.

“I was just hopeful I guess, the blind faith that my body would figure it out.”

Somehow, incredibly, his body did.

Bell ONLY needed 158 days, 14 hours and 52 minutes to cover 13,383km. He reached that distance on Thursday night to smash the record by more than 10 days late on Thursday night.

The freak of nature was in regional South Australia when he set the new mark because of changed routes, which meant he equalled the distance covered from Ron Grant’s initial record run around Australia back in 1983, as well as Alleys.

Bell was a familiar sight to truckers across Australia as he ran along the A1 Highway in five states and a territory.

He is scheduled to make it back to the MCG on Friday (August 23) – and run around Tasmania after that – with the record in his grasp.

Those truckers saw him completing his trademark “Seany Shuffle” along the highway, talking to random livestock and yelling his catchcry of “giddy up”.

The Vermont native has been on the road for around 12 hours per day – sometimes longer – and ran more than 70km on every day of his record-breaking journey.

It has transformed Bell from a healthy – aside from the stress fracture – long haired, young man into a weathered, crewcut and bearded senior citizen.

His diet has been staggering. He eats a whopping 10,000 calories per day, which involves plenty of Sunkist, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, thickshakes and doughnuts.

Bell estimates he has vomited 130 times through pure exhaustion – and maybe some of those thickshakes. Many of these were shared to his 27,500 Instagram followers, who can attest to how gruesome they were.

He also had 50 random blood noses – most of those coming in the sweltering heat in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Bell tucking in on the side of the road.

The immense pain he has gone through made the record-breaking moment all the more sweet. But the most satisfying thing for Bell has been raising more than $110,000 to support sick kids and their families.

“It is just elation. A feeling that can come from so many highs and lows and not just the six months,” Bell said.

“There were times where I was on all fours throwing up projectile with blood pouring out my nose ... and all of the setbacks and adversity along the way as well.

“I know it is not easy, it is still really, really hard, but you just remind yourself in those tough moments why you’re out here and why you want to do it.

“I’m choosing to hurt for these sick kids who have no choice.

“Some of them are facing cancer where chemotherapy is required, they are spewing their guts up and that is awful as a child.

“This is involuntary for a lot of people and this is voluntary for me and I know that is crazy to a lot of people, but when you love the challenge and understand it is part of the journey, well it makes a big difference.”

Bell on the move.

FOR COACH CRONSHAW

As well as running for sick kids, he was running for the late Jase Cronshaw, Bell’s former coach and business partner.

When Sean was at the start of his Cairns to Melbourne run in 2022 – a dress rehearsal for his journey around Australia – he was rocked by the sudden death of Cronshaw.

His dream of running around Australia was set with Cronshaw back in 2018, and Bell was determined to do it for him.

Sean Bell with Jase in 2019.

“When you do something as physically and mentally demanding you work very closely with your coach and this is something that we set the goal to do in 2018, we set the goal to do it one day,” Bell said.

“You’re constantly back and forth, your coach becomes one of your best mates and to lose him in 2022, while I was doing my rehearsal run, obviously broke my heart and tested me so much.

I wouldn’t be out here, I wouldn’t have been able to do the inaugural Run for Wishes from Cairns to Melbourne if it wasn’t for coach getting me into that position.

“He is someone who said ‘if you believe you can, you’ve got to do it. You’ve got to get the best out of yourself, you’ve got to be the best you can be’.

“It was one of the hardest things losing him but at the same time it has made me stronger and incredibly resilient to do something like this.”

Bell is sure that Cronshaw would be proud looking down from above.

“I’m just proud that I have been able to honour him in this way and the record is just a bonus,” Bell said.

“We want to change as many sick kids lives as much as we can and we’re still doing that with fundraising.”