Story · Swim
Gibraltar
14.4 km
The gap where the Atlantic poured back into the Mediterranean.
Swim 14.4 km. The width of the strait at its narrowest.
- It stands on
- Hatchling's swim, 10 km
What it takes
Before you go.
- Recommended first
- The 10 km swim
- Weekly distance
- About 14 km of swimming a week on average over 6 weeks
- Long swim
- 3.2 km, at least once in the last 6 weeks. Finishing the 10 km swim counts
- Taper
- An easier week before the event week
The story
About 5.3 million years ago the Mediterranean had nearly dried out. Then the Atlantic broke through here and refilled it. The myth says Heracles split the mountain. 14.4 km is the width of the water, and real crossings swim further because of the currents. Source: Garcia-Castellanos et al. 2009, Nature.
The ladder
- Ice mile/
- Swim to Antarctica/
- Between the monsters/
- Across the Cold War/
- Hellespont/
- Plum Pudding/
- Grettir's swim/
- Cadets' eight/
- Thames at 14/
- Hatchling's swim/
- 10 km/
- Gibraltar