Almost there........

I can't believe that it's so close now. There is less than four weeks to the start of my tides! Since 1st January this year I have swam 940km, and will begin to taper in the next two weeks when I reach the 1,000km mark; that's One Million Metres... I am starting to cut down now to only doing one or two hour swims up in the resevoir. At this stage I am really itching to swim!

So far I have raised almost €4,000 for the Irsh Cancer Society. Please help me hit the €5,000 mark before we leave for England. You can donate online at www.mycharity.ie/event/ec4cancer or if you're living around Fermoy, call into The Bookshop in Pearse Square where they have a sponsorship card instore.

This year has been a great year for Channel swimming in Cork. So far six locals have made it and there are four more to go. This ties with 2005 which was the record year for successes from Cork. Also, out of the Distance Camp back in June, eight out of eight have made it so far, and there are more to come. I think all of us who are left to go are feeling the pressure not to break the 100% success rate so far this year.

That's it for the moment... I will do another post around the end of the month.

Irish 17km Championships 2009

This was my first year taking part in the Irish 17km Championships, held in Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh. Yes, Co. Fermanagh is over the border in Northern Ireland but swimming in Ireland is an "all island" afair so both the Republic and the North are included in Championships. The swim was run by Martin Cullen of The Irish Long Distance Swimming Association (ILDSA).

This was also my first proper swim after a two week holiday and a total journey of more than 10hrs to get to the start line! So, I really wasn'e expecting to do particularly well. The water was on ok temperature. It wasn't very comfortable but it could have been alot colder... I finished the swim in 4:10:36. I was hoping to do it in under 4hrs but that wasn't too bad for my first time doing it. I finished in third place overall. The winner was Lisa Broadfield of the USA and second was Simon Lee of Great Britain. Even though it was the Irish Championships, they gave the trophy to the English guy. He had been winning the event for the last 10yrs but they always awarded the trophy to the Irish Champion... It would have to be the one year that they decide to change it!

I did enjoy the event though. It felt very long and was very boring.....exactly as a swim should be. Maybe next year I will go back and do it slightly better! Sorry about the lack of pictures... My Dad wasn't there! Unfortunately I can't seem to get eny so we'll just have to imagine it.....

Lee Swim 18th July 2009

This year proved to be another fantastic Lee Swim. The swim was first held in 1914 but was later relocated and eventually suspended due to the bad water quality in Cork City and the outer Harbour. It was resurected in 2005 when Cork celebrated it's year as the European Capital of Culture. Everybody was amazed at the great improvement in water quality since the City's new drainage system was put in place and now the swim has become the largest open-water event in the country, with people travelling from all over the world to participate. This year a record number of 279 people took part.

I first did the swim in 2006. It was my first big open-water event and I was only 13 years old. Myself and my friend Bryan Dillon had spent the first half of the summer training for this swim which we thought was very long and was going to be really scary. That year we placed reasonably well and got hooked on open-water swimming, doing the Sandycove Island Challenge that September. In 2007 I was taking swimming fairly seriously and set myself the challenge of beating Ned in the Lee. I did beat him then but lost out on the Island Challenge that year. That September Ned and Danny Coholan (EC Soloist) took me on my first Speckled Door to Sandycove 5km swim. Being the youngest to ever do it it got alot of attention and gave me great confidence. Within a month I had booked my English Channel Swim.

In 2008 I was determined to do as well as I could. I beat Ned in the Lee and finished 4th overall. I also did the Lizard Point swim, Loch Allua, Crosshaven to Blackrock and Blackorock to Cóbh in that year and came second in the Island Challenge. Oops, I started rambling... Let's get back to the Lee Swim!

This year was another fantastic Lee Swim, even if it was rainig for most of the day! After a bit of a slow start, I surprised myself and managed to climb back up to finish in second place. I never would have thought in 2006 that I would be coming 2nd in the Lee Swim. I finished in 23mins 17secs which I was absolutely delighted with, I was thinking that 25mins would have been very good. As usual everybody really enjoyed the day. There was a great surprise afterwards when there was a real game of proper water-polo played in the River infront of the Clarion Hotel. At least this kept us some way occupied while the results were being done manually due to a technical fault with the electronic timing!


Joe Donnelly has to be crongratulated for his excellent work for resurecting this swim and making it such a great success every year. It is not easy running an event like this with so many participants and spectators! Thanks Joe........!!! Also, well done to the overall winner, Shane Drumm of Aer Lingus SC and the winner of the women's race Maeve Linahen fo Mallow Swans SC, also well done to Harry Cohen, 12yo, who travelled from London and was the youngest participant in the swim.

I really can't wait for next year's Lee Swim!