How to sweatwork: forget golf, high fliers are networking at gruelling endurance events

It’s hard to imagine many company bosses jetting off to Nassau in the Bahamas to take part in a gruelling three-day triathlon that will see them swim, bike and run themselves to their limit, taking on some of the best amateur athletes in world. But then that’s the point of the Fittest CEO Challenge — it’s only for a select few.

Last October the invitation-only event saw 10 of the leanest, meanest company executives hightail it to the white sands of the Caribbean to compete for the right to call themselves ‘World’s Fittest CEO’. ‘We only offer money-can’t-buy experiences,’ says Ted Kennedy, president of CEO Challenges, who explains that those lucky enough to qualify stay in the luxury 30-room Island House hotel alongside professional triathletes competing in their own parallel event, where £400,000 in prize money is on the line. ‘You’ll be by the pool and have to pinch yourself because Olympic gold medal-winner Gwen Jorgensen is right there, too.’

Kennedy’s race is one of a new wave of ultra-exclusive sporting events gathering the world’s highest-fliers. Some are invitation-only, others are limited to those who can afford the entry fees or those with calves hewn from teak — a prerequisite for taking part. But all attract their own crowd and provide a perfect opportunity to do some professional or personal ‘sweatworking’.

Take Virgin Strive, the three-week triathlon organised by the Branson clan. At the biannual event’s second gathering last autumn, entrepreneurs, celebrities and royalty mixed on a 2,325 km odyssey that began with hiking in the Swiss Alps, progressed to cycling vast distances across Italy and culminated in a swim across the Strait of Messina to Sicily and a trek to the summit of Mount Etna. While Strive events have a ‘core team’ of guests, spaces can be bought — as long you’re prepared to pay the entry fee (up to £2,500 for one five-day leg) and manage to raise the required level of sponsorship for the youth charity Big Change. ‘Spending time with the key people involved in Strive is always good — both socially and from a business perspective,’ says one ‘Striver’, Piers Ritchie. The list of competitors has included Princess Beatrice, Jack Whitehall and Innocent Drinks founder, Richard Reed.