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A relay team of six women have set a swimming record that will take some beating. Setting out last Monday 12 June the 'Grainne Ni Mhailles' were the first team to swim the 44km between Templetown Beach and Skerries, making the journey in just 13 hours and 39 minutes.
The team were: Jenn Fitzgerald, Oonagh Garry, Georgie Lonton, Andrea Judge, Edele Johnston and Lauren O’Malley. Infinity Channel Swimming in Camlough sponsored the event along with Peak Performance Recruitment in Dundalk. The swim may have started low key with just a few well-wishers seeing them off at Templetown but a tracker on the event organised by Infinity at one point had 7000 people following their progress!
There's a lot of experience among the group with three of the ladies part of different North channel relay teams in the past.
Speaking about the achievement team member Jenn Fitzgerald said "We expected it to take an awful lot longer than what it actually did. Our unofficial time (we're waiting ratification from the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association) is 13 hours and 39 minutes. We had prepared mentally and physically for longer because you never know what conditions you are going to get on the day. You hope for what we got, but you plan for much worse."
When they set out it was quite overcast and rainy up until about 1pm but the sun came out around 3pm and it was really hot and sunny for the remainder.
Fitzgerald said "We had a pod of dolphins following us. Lauren O'Malley from Camlough was actually swimming for a full hour with a pod of dolphins next to her. She finished her swim, It was really hot and sunny, she had just been swimming with dolphins. She hopped out of the water, dried herself off a little bit, stuck a bikini on and was like 'where's the cocktails, I'm on my holidays'."
The women are looking forward to becoming a part of swimming history in Ireland. "It was a lovely moment when our pilot radioed to the Coast Guard to say, right, we've completed our swim, because that that goes right down in the Coast Guard record." Fitzgerald added.
On Infinity Channel Swimming, and the company's Directors Jacqueline McClelland and Padraig Mallon she said "Infinity continuously, Inspire, challenge and support those who want to go beyond their limits in the water. I had been thinking about our relay swim for a couple of years. I had amassed a team and then I had a conversation with Padraig Mallon where the swim was going to be and he was the person that said why don't you swim from Templetown to Rockabill Lighthouse, Skerries.
"They sponsored our boat, they were hugely helpful in that. Jacqueline McClelland is just an amazing woman, so supportive. Any question that you have - I remember back in March or maybe April frustrated with myself personally because I just couldn't manage the cold. I was having a hard time. I had it in my head, I needed to get a certain amount of time in the cold water and I was just really struggling and I went to her and said I'm struggling with this and she had five different tips - try this, try that, try the other and then use this product and she sent it to me in a text message so that I would remember what she had said. The support was unreal."
The team want to thank all of the people who helped along the way. "There were kayakers on cold swims, kayakers on night swims, all of our families who suffered us ignoring them and neglecting them because we were going for a swim.
"There was the six of us that got there to Rockabill Lighthouse and then there was a whole host of people behind the scenes, giving us little pushes and nudges and encouragement along the way that are part of the greater team." Fitzgerald added.
Celebrations are on ice though. While there was plenty of whoops and hollers and a bottle of champagne of course, a lot of the girls were straight back to work the following morning. Fitzgerald concluded "Our celebrations are yet to come. Some of us are single mothers, all of us work. I was back at work the next day at 10 o'clock as were a lot of the other girls ... Celebrations to follow."
