Those are just three of the words that come to mind when trying to explain a recent achievement by Leeton's Matt Watson.

Watson was the only Australian to compete in and finish the 2019 Swissman Extreme Triathalon.

The race is the most extreme ironman in the world, consisting of a four kilometre swim, a 180km bike ride through the Swiss Alps reaching a 2500m incline and a 42km run.

The final 10km of that run was up the steep mountain Kleine Scheidegg en route to Jungfrau Mountain, which is the highest mountain in Europe, located in Switzerland.

"I had heard a lot about the Swissman, but didn't actually think I would get a chance to compete," Watson said.

"Entry is granted through a lottery each year, so its difficult to obtain a spot.

"There's 250 spots up for grabs each year, with 125 being allocated to the Swiss and the remaining 125 to the rest of the world, so I was very fortunate to secure a spot."

Watson has previously completed a number of triathlons in Australia and overseas, but the Swissman was by far the toughest.

It had a combined gained elevation of 5500m, with 3700m of that during the ride through the Swiss Alps.

Training for the event was semi-difficult for Watson, who now lives in Griffith as the MIA is not known for its hilly landscape.

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He was also assisted with training thanks to his coach, who is based out of Melbourne.

A requirement of the event is to have a support crew, with Watson enlisting his sister Rosemary Watson, as well as Jacob DePaoli and Anne McPhee for the task.

"Without them I doubt I would have been able to finish it," he said.

"My goal was just to finish it under 15 hours. I missed that time goal, but finishing it in the end was enough.

"There was a number of people who failed to finish it, so I was quite lucky.

"Having the support crew of Jacob, Anne and Rose helped immensely throughout the race.

"It's compulsory for your support crew to join you for the final 12km, which helped with keeping my mind off the race. I'd done a lot of training leading up to the event, so the hours sacrificed leading up to it also helped to keep the legs going."

Now he's recovered from the race, Watson said he would probably give it another crack, but for the moment was enjoying not exercising.

"I had quite bad dehydration during the marathon run, so I'd like to go back and get my nutrition right," he said. "Maybe (also do) an ironman with a little less elevation."

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