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 expects 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 Bering 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.