The Global Triathlon: Swimming, Cycling, and Running Around The Globe

Remember last year when we were all in awe of Charlie Wittmack and his World Tri? For those that don't recall, Charlie's "triathlon" consisted of him swimming across the English Channel, then riding his bike to India, before proceeding on foot to Tibet where he scaled Everest for the second time. He faced a lot of hardships along the way, but eventually he managed to cover all 16,000km (10,000 miles) to accomplish his goal.

This year, endurance athlete Dan Martin will take the concept one step further. Dan will embark on his Global Triathlon in May and will swim, cycle, and run his way around the globe. The adventure will begin in New York City where Martin will dive into the Hudson River and begin a 5700km (3541 mile) swim across the Atlantic Ocean. Yes, Dan is beginning the triathlon in the traditional way, but like everything else on this event, his swim just happens to be much longer.

He expect that swim to take upwards of four to six months to complete and plans on ending in France, where he'll climb onto his bike and start riding east. He'll then follow the Trans Siberian Express, in winter no less, across Europe and Asia before arriving in Anadyr in the far eastern portion of Russia. From there, he'll hop across the Bearing Sea to Uelen, Alaska and start a 5200km (3000 mile) trek across North America, ending back in New York where he started.

It is a very ambitious project to say the least and it should be interesting to follow along with Dan's progress. The fact that he is swimming an ocean is intriguing as well, especially in light of Ben Lecomte's efforts to swim across the Pacific, which will get underway in April.

Good luck to Dan on this excursion and thanks to Tim for sharing the Global Tri with me in the comments yesterday.

One Record Setting Swim Complete, Another Prepares To Begin

While we're on the subject of aquatic adventures today I had a couple of stories about some epic swims cross my desk in the past day or two. The first of which is a team of South African relay swimmers who set a world record by swimming 350km (217 miles) in 106 hours. That's a very impressive feat considering that adds up to nearly 4.5 days in the water.

The team, which consisted of Russell Tucker, Greg Tucker, SanMari Woithe, JC van Wyk, Brenton Williams and Ralph West, took turns swimming 3.1km (1.9 mile) laps in the Marina Martinique at Jeffreys Bay. They began their record setting swim last Wednesday and finished up over the weekend after continuing non-stop, day and night, through rain, wind and electrical storms for much of that time. At night they were accompanied by paddlers who stayed close to ensure their safety.

Congrats to the team for completing this epic swim. The grind that they had to have felt over the course of those days must have been incredible. Swimming lap after lap, even as part of a relay team, takes a great deal of endurance and I have a lot of respect for these athletes.

One athlete who is ramping up for an epic swim of his own is Ben Lecomte. In April he is planning on embarking on a solo-swim across the Pacific Ocean that will begin in Tokyo and end in San Francisco. Outside Online has a good article today about Ben's quest, which will cover more than 8850km (5500 miles) of open water. He expects to be in the water eight hours a day, averaging roughly 64km (40 miles) per day. At that pace, it will take him five months to complete the crossing.

Lecomte, who once swam across the Atlantic Ocean, will use a GPS device to keep track of his position at any given time. That will ensure that he begins his swim at the correct spot each day as he'll spend nights resting aboard a sailboat. That rigid tracking will allow us to follow his progress but is also a requirement for Guinness to officially recognize his achievement.

While he'll have to deal with the physical demands of the swim, not to mention potential shark encounters, Outside notes, Ben's biggest concern could be getting enough food. It is estimated that he'll burn in excess of 8000 calories per day and it can actually get to be tiresome to consume enough food over weeks of that kind of exertion.

Just reading about either of these long-distance swimming events makes me tired.

Dave Cornthwaite Announces 2012 Expedition Schedule

British adventurer Dave Cornthwaite, whom we all followed down the Mississippi River on a stand-up paddleboard last summer, has announced his plans for 2012. In the months ahead, Dave will expand on his Expedition 1000 theme by undertaking three new, non-motorized, adventures over both land and water.

Expedition 1000 is a project that Dave started back in 2006. The plan is to make 25 separate journeys, each at least 1000 miles in length, without using any kind of motor. The first of those journeys was a 3621 mile crossing of Australia on a skateboard. Cornthwaite followed that up with 1540 mile paddle down the Murray River, also in Australia. The third leg of Expedition 1000 featured a tandem bicycle ride from Vancouver to Las Vegas, covering 1396 miles, while the fourth was the aforementioned source-to-seas SUP journey on the Mississippi.

This March, Dave will sail from Cabo, Mexico to Honolulu, Hawaii – a distance of 3000 miles – with a group of strangers. The ship will have a crew of 12 and as of this writing there are still three open slots if anyone would like to join the crew. The voyage, which Dave describes as being a TED Talk on the open seas, will feature a series of workshops and lectures on the importance of our planet's oceans. The trip is expected to take about 15 days to complete.

After that, Dave plans on taking a little dip in the Missouri River, swimming 1000 miles along that waterway and culminating in St. Louis. Starting in August, that challenge is expected to take roughly 50 days to complete, and as usual, others are encouraged to join in on the journey as well.

Finally, Dave will join Sarah Outen as she makes her crossing of Canada on a bike. As many of you probably already know, Sarah is in the midst of her London2London expedition, in which she is circling the globe completely under her own power. In November of this year, Dave will join her on a cycling adventure that begins in Vancouver and ends in New York. For this leg of Expedition 1000, Dave will be breaking out his Whike, a specially designed recumbent bike that incorporates a sail as well.

Seems like a pretty solid year of adventure for Cornthwaite and those of us who will be following his journeys. Thats an ambitious list of expeditions, but if anyone can manage, it'll be Dave. Of course, it is all being done for charity, with proceeds going to the CoppaFeel organization to fight breast cancer.

Good luck!