CHALLENGE COMPLETE! Last Saturday's 800 m and today's 2.2 km swim bring my total distance up to 13 km covered during the month of August. Despite some rough stormy weather and thanks to the support of family and friends, this was a fantastic experience where I pushed myself beyond anything I have ever done before!

I managed to squeeze in a 1.5km swim in togs earlier today (before storm Ellen hits the west coast). It was very choppy and colder than the past couple of weeks...I found it somewhat harder than usual despite the shorter distance. Anyhow, this brings the current partial to 10km! So, only 3km to go :)

Ironman distance swim completed! Water conditions were perfect and was delighted with a time of 1h30m for a 4km swim. This brings the current total to 8.5km...4.5km to reach to final goal! May be I will attempt it in one go next week :)

Yesterday I returned to the sea and done something I had never done before (in Ireland)...I swam 1500 meters WITHOUT a wetsuit! The water was lovely :) All is set now to attempt an Ironman distance swim (with a wetsuit) on Saturday

After some time away from the coast I will restore my challenge to swim Galway Bay as part of the 2020 Frances Thornton memorial swim. I plan to do a 2km swim on Wednesday 12th to warm up, and go further than any previous swim I have ever done by completing an Ironman distance swim (3.8km) on Saturday 15th...let's hope that the sea conditions will remain as good as they are now :)

Accompanied by compass jellyfish, shoals of sand eels and inquisitive seagulls, I managed to complete my first section of the Galway Bay swim, covering 3 km in 1 hour and 12 minutes...10 more kilometers to go!

And so it begins...tomorrow I will jump in for the first swim towards the 13 km overall goal. To start I plan to swim the farthest I ever swam in one session aiming for a 3 km open water swim along the prom in Salthill starting and ending in Blackrock. My challenge for tomorrow will not only be to swim 3 km but also to complete it under 1 hour and 10 minutes...we shall see!