Swimmers out and about.
While some of our members have been running across mountains and taking part in triathlons, there were a number of events more suited to the water babies amongst our numbers. On Saturday the 4th of September a number of our members travelled to Limerick to take part in the Limerick Narwhals island Swim. The Island Swim is a 3.8k charity swim around Kings Island in the heart of Limerick City. The swim takes place each September with participants swimming up the famous Abbey river where historically men worked on angling cots, a native limerick boat. Once around the top of the Island the swimmers swim back to the city where they are treated to a panoramic view of Limerick including sites such as Thomond Park, Thomond Bridge, King Johns Castle, St Mary's Cathedral and the city. This year 176 swimmers took part on the day. Frank Hallissey, Declan O’Keeffe, Stephen Dalton, Dave Mulcahy, Julian Boeg, Conor O’Geran Jim Crowley, Kevin Carbery and Sinead Sheridan all completed the swim, well under the 2 hour cutoff time, ably assisted and supported from the bank by a support crew consisting of Niamh Crowley and Claire Crowley. Some swam in wetsuits and most in skins. The water was a relatively balmy 17 degrees on the day and all enjoyed the swim. As usual, it was well organised by Limerick Narwhals with plenty of social distancing and safety measures in evidence on a lovely September day.
Not satisfied with the 4km swim on Saturday, Frank and Julian headed to union Hall on Sunday for the annual RNLI lifeboat swim. Participants could do either the 1km or 2 km swim on the day. This time Niamh joined Julian and Frank in the water and swam along with Ciara MacCallum, Mary Collins and Brendan and Vanessa Holland. Conditions were perfect on the day, lovely and calm and again around 17 degrees. Another great day of swimming to finish off the summer