James Lawrence was born in Calgary, Alberta, and found endurance sport almost by accident: after running a marathon with his family, he discovered triathlon and raced his first Ironman-distance event in 2008. Within a few years the hobby had become a full-blown obsession, and by 2011 he held a Guinness World Record for the most half-Ironman-distance triathlons completed in a single year — 22.
He picked up his now-famous nickname, "Iron Cowboy," after he started wearing a cowboy hat during the run leg of his races so his young children could pick him out of the crowd at the finish line. It stuck, and so did the persona: a Utah father of five who kept setting endurance targets most people would call reckless.
In 2014 he qualified for the Ironman World Championship in Kona. The following year he attempted something no one had done before — 50 full Ironman-distance triathlons, in all 50 U.S. states, in 50 consecutive days. He started in Hawaii on June 6, 2015, and for the next seven weeks swam, biked, and ran a full Ironman distance every single day, flying overnight between states with his support crew. Local athletes and fans joined him for legs of the race in nearly every state. He finished his 50th triathlon, in his 50th state, on July 25, 2015 — a new world record, undertaken to raise awareness of childhood obesity.
Six years later he went back for more. In 2021 he launched "Conquer100": 100 consecutive days of full Ironman-distance racing, swimming, biking, and running a combined 140.6 miles every day for over three months. He finished the 100th day and then, rather than stop on a round number, raced one more — 101 Ironman-distance triathlons in 101 consecutive days, breaking his own 2015 record and covering more than 14,000 miles along the way. The record stood until 2023, when Welsh athlete Sean Conway surpassed it.
Lawrence wrote about the 2015 challenge in his memoir, Iron Cowboy: Redefine Impossible, published in 2017. He still lives in Utah with his wife and five children.