The Freedom Challenge was initiated in 2003 when David Waddilove ran the Two Oceans Marathon and then continued running along the route which is now the Freedom Trail, arriving in Pietermaritzburg after 42 days of running, to then do the Comrades Marathon.
The inaugural event took place in 2004. The participants were David Waddilove, Rob Waddilove and Andrew King. They had varied times for both the Comrades run and Berg River paddle sections. They finished the RASA section of the race in 22 days and 15 hours. The last day they had a leisurely start at around 7 o’clock thinking they would finish just after lunch. Stettynskloof made itself felt for the very first time. They eventually arrived at the finish at 10pm. Most of the welcoming party had either gone home or got happily drunk while waiting
In 2010 the Comrades moved to an earlier date. This resulted in the launch of the 85km Umgeni River Run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg which took place on 16 June and served as the running leg for those doing the Extreme Triathlon Challenge. With a further change to the dates for the Berg River Canoe Marathon in 2014, the Extreme Triathlon became impractical due to the breaks between events and is no longer offered.

EXTREME TRIATHLON MEN'S RECORDGRAHAM BIRD
201120d15h04m(Umgeni Run 08:59:54 RASA 19d07h55 Berg River 18h30m)

EXTREME TRIATHLON WOMEN'S RECORDTATUM PRINS
201120d15h04m(Umgeni Run 07:51:39 RASA 19d07h55 Berg River 18h30m)
XTC - All Finishers Times
XTC
David | Waddilove | XTC 2004 | 22d 13h15 |
Andrew | King | XTC 2004 | 22d 13h15 |
Robert | Waddilove | XTC 2004 | 22d 13h15 |
Wessel | Cronje | XTC 2005 | 17d 12h10 |
Dimitri | Kieffer | XTC 2005 | 23d 09h05 |
Andrew | barnes | XTC 2008 | 19d 13h05 |
Dave | Barr | XTC 2009 | 20d 12h00 |
Carl | Crous | XTC 2010 | 14d 19h55 |
Keith | Little | XTC 2010 | 22d 13h40 |
Graham | Bird | XTC 2011 | 19d 07h55 |
Tatum | Prince | XTC 2011 | 19d 07h55 |
Sean | Privett | XTC 2012 | 20d 08h10 |
Dino | Marusich | XTC 2012 | 23d 12h30 |
Leon | van der Nest | XTC 2013 | 20d 109h48 |
Andries | de Villiers | XTC 2013 | 20d 09h48 |