Although I swam three open water events over the summer, the one that I was really looking forward to was the intercontinental Hellespont & Dardanelles crossing which is an iconic swim of just under 5k from the European to Asian side of Turkey. It didn’t disappoint and it’s hard not to be evangelical about the whole experience. I’ve had to refrain from talking excitedly about it non-stop to random strangers, friends and family since I have returned. This isn’t easy when there is so much to like about this swim.

View looking out from Çanakkale with Eceabat just around the corner.

I chose to book the event with SwimTrek and while the whole trip was not cheap, the SwimTrek organisation is incredible and the staff are brilliant. I loved the fact that this was an event that was locally-run with the majority of swimmers Turks who turned out on the day (Victory Day in Turkey) to swim across the strait. Çanakkale is also a relatively small city on a scale which allowed for walking and taking in the sights and trying out my limited Turkish. It’s not the easiest place to get to being about 4 hours from Istanbul, but this remoteness is part of its charm. This was the 38th edition of the swim and the history and deep connections were clear to see. Simon Murie from SwimTrek was keen to pay tribute to this history and to those in Turkey who have worked so hard over the years to make this event special.

Trojan Horse of Çanakkale

We had an acclimation swim on the day and a ferry ride to get a sense of the landscape and how to plot our line which changes over the course of the swim. Simon described this event as a ‘thinking person’s swim’ where strategy was as important as swimming power and this is because an aggressive swim line could result in the currents taking swimmers out past the finish and ultimately not being able to complete the race. On the other, too conservative of a line would result in a much slower overall finish time by not getting the full benefit of the currents.

Although the wind had been noticeable on the days leading up to the event producing visible white caps in the water, the morning of race was very calm. After an early rise at 5:30am and a walk to the race village, all 1,400 swimmers were ferried across to Eceabat on the European side. From there, it was a walk to the start and a bit of wait to get all of the requisite pieces in place including approximately 800 support boats. The channel itself is closed for the two hours of the crossing and given the number of people and logistics involved, everything ran smoothly.

The start: Photo courtesy of Çanakkale Rotary Club

Then, we were off. I stayed away from the elite swimmers and scrum at the front and made my way in after about 3-4 minutes from the gun. I can only imagine that this could be a treacherous crossing on a windy day, but today was benign. The visibility was excellent and the decision to introduce tow floats meant that I never lost sight of at least some swimmers. I followed a fairly conservative line keeping the radio tower dead ahead and made sure I was a good way across before turning and following the minaret and then stadium flood lights. At this point, I got a sense of the currents pushing me and before too long I got a fuzzy view of Çanakkale and eventually the race village. A final bit of a sprint finish with a group of other swimmers took me to the line before I was hauled out by one of the officials.

It will probably turn out to be the easiest 5k (nearly) that I will ever swim and most likely one of the most enjoyable ones.

Final swimmers making their way into the finish.