Having recovered from his his successful Ice Mile exploits in February, Blackwater Triathlon Club member, Frank Hallissey, took on some more swimming challenges last weekend as he attended the Hit the Wall open water training camp in Carlingford Lough. Over the course of a gruelling weekend, Frank and the other participants took part in 6 swims; one night swim, one race, a channel qualifier and three ‘dips’. Frank and his fellow swimmers also took part in a firewalk, 4 yoga sessions and some sessions concentrating on goal setting and achievement .These sessions were interspersed with the occasional ice bath, just to keep them honest. The main event was the battle of Carlingford Lough on Saturday. This was a 7.5km race from Omeath to Carligford Village. Conditions on the day were pretty bad, with a 2m swell and wind going against an ebbing tide. Frank described it as probably the worst conditions that he’d ever swum in. The entire group was blown asunder and times were around 30 minutes down on last year. Frank finished in 2 hours 21 minutes, 50th out of 235 starters. Despite his experiences on Saturday Frank decided to round things off on Sunday with another ‘dip’, this time a 4 hour, 12 kilometre, channel qualifier swim. Fortunately conditions were better on Sunday and the organisers changed the route during the swim to allow for wind and tide variations.  All in all Frank had an amazing weekend and he would recommend the experience to anyone thinking of upping their distance in the open water.