The jaunt begins in the dark, hours before the sun begins to emerge over Utah’s Wasatch Mountains 2,500 miles from where Dalton Carmichael grew up.

A busy police detective and the father of a 7-month-old baby, a 3:30 a.m. wakeup is hardly usual for someone like Carmichael. That’s not why he’s awake, though — he’s off to the pool, then to the mountains, and finally, back to his neighborhood, where he finishes a sprint triathlon.

“What’s really hard is the mentality of having to wake up early in the morning every day to do it all over again,” said Carmichael, a 2013 graduate of Gardiner Area High School. “My body still feels great — it’s nothing that won’t heal — but it’s tough to do it every day.”

Yet that’s exactly what Carmichael’s done in swimming 750 meters, biking 12 miles and running 3.1 miles to complete a sprint-triathlon distance every day for the past 112 days. It’s made him the unofficial Guinness World Record-holder in the category, breaking the former consecutive days mark of 101.

Gardiner native Dalton Carmichael holds a sign symbolizing the 102nd straight day that he swan 750 meters, biked 12 miles and ran 3.1 miles. Contributed photo

In terms of his background, Carmichael might not be the person you’d expect to break such a record. Not a runner or a swimmer, he instead played soccer and lacrosse during his time at Gardiner before moving out west to attend Utah Valley University after graduating high school.

“I’ve had a lot of people that have followed me along and have been interested in my progress that have all been willing to do it,” Carmichael said. “Things happen — people are busy or go out of town — but I’ve always been able to find somebody. It’s been great to have so many people follow along.”

Around the time Carmichael began dating his now-wife, Morgan, though, he became interested in taking up another sport. At first, he wanted to try MMA after getting into Muay Thai and jiu-jitsu. Then, he developed an affinity for racing, competing and medaling in numerous Spartan Races and marathons.

“He’s always reading different sports books and watching sports documentaries, and he’ll come across something he likes and becomes really passionate about it,” Morgan Carmichael said. “When he gets fixated on something, he’s all-in, so when started getting super into racing, I knew he’d find something like this.”

Carmichael doesn’t remember how he stumbled upon the consecutive sprint triathlon record, but when he did, he knew it was the kind of challenge that was made for him. He reached out to Guinness, and a few months later, they got back to him with the criteria of what he needed to do to achieve and document the record.

To get his record accepted, Carmichael has used GPS data and photos and, in the case of swimming, filmed his swims at the local indoor pool. He then gets two witnesses (none of which can be family members) to view said information and sign a form indicating they saw all three.

That’s happened daily since Dec. 27. Busy or not (not that a police officer with a 7-month-old can ever really not be busy), he begins his mornings at the pool before heading outdoors to brave the elements — elements that, particularly this winter, have been tough in the Utah mountains.

“I think it’s a bit more bearable in Utah than it is back in Maine, but’s pretty cold still,” Carmichael said. “There have been times when it’s been a blizzard when I’m out there on the biking trail. There’s been some interesting bike rides, for sure; I fell down a ditch one time because I couldn’t see in front of me.”

In those snowy conditions, it often takes Carmichael three or even four hours to complete his morning trek. Now that there’s no longer any snow on the ground, though, his pace has improved to roughly two hours and 15 minutes.

On April 6, the day of his record-setting 102nd straight day, several of Carmichael’s friends swam, biked and ran alongside him. Among them were his friends Brett Corbin, Dan Sifuentes and Megan Larsen, the latter of whom was in awe of Carmichael’s endurance three and a half months later.

Dalton Carmichael bikes 12 miles a day. Contributed photo

“You think of him being on Day 102, and you say, ‘Oh, well he’s got to be going a little bit slower,’ but then you watch him, and he’s not losing any speed and not losing any momentum,” Larsen said. “That was pretty surprising to me, but I knew when he said he wanted to do this that he was going to do it.”

As Carmichael’s record has yet to be formally certified by Guinness World Records, the official title still belongs to Raymond Wall of Bromsgrove, United Kingdom. Records can take up to 12 weeks to be certified for applicants who chose not to pay an $800 priority fee.

Carmichael, who was determined not to stop once he hit the 102 mark, had originally set his goal at reaching 202 consecutive days, thereby doubling Wall’s 101 mark. He’s since relaxed that goal to 151 consecutive days — Project 151, he calls it — before his streak is interrupted so the family can take a Caribbean cruise.

Ending the streak will take a two-hour-plus daily duty off the table for Carmichael, who’s last day is planned for May 25. It’ll be a relief for a couple that will be thrilled to have more time for parenthood and a social life, though at this point, the Gardiner native’s wife thinks the way her husband has juggled all three has become routine.

“I definitely wondered how it was going to go with the new baby and just juggling that, work and life, but he’s exceeded my expectations,” Morgan Carmichael said. “Our life has for sure changed, but regardless of what’s going in, he still makes it happen.”

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