Lough Gill 10km Swim for NW Hospice Sligo

lough gill swim

Hey we're running the lough gill swim for NW Hospice again this year and wanted to spread the word. the swim takes place on august 11th 2012 which is a saturday.

We have our launch night on Tues 15th May in the Radisson Hotel Sligo. There will be some interesting speakers covering the swim itself, how it came about, some history of the lake, links to the hospice and more. we will premiere our new promotional video for the event at the end. Local DJ Francie Boylan from Ocean FM is kindly giving up his time to act as Master Of Ceremonies for the night.

Last year we raised €11,400 for NW Hospice and hope to raise even more this year. We won the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association award for Swim of the Year in 2011 and were granted a civic reception in the town hall with the mayor. The committee's work is entirely voluntary and we have been amazed by the support we have been given by local people and businesses. swimmers will pay their own entry costs, t shirt, swim hats etc meaning any money raised goes directly to NW Hospice.

The swim itself is a gruelling affair and will take about 5 hours for a lot of the swimmers who need to be in top condition to even think about taking it on.

All the details are on our website including some interviews with ocean fm we did last month explaining a bit more about the event. we're in this week's sligo champion and made the front of last weeks weekender but can never get enough coverage for something like this

We have a large function room and would love to see a good turn out, whether your links are to the hospice or the swim or would like to find out a little bit more about it.

Here is out current promotional video, the new one will be out on tuesday. loads of photos on the website from a chilly dip in the lake we took last month!

so spread the word, our swimmers will have sponsorship cards soon and would be great the more people know about it.

blackiebest

Well done and great effort all round. Very impressive that such a challenging event is taking place on Lough Gill. If you need any help on the water on the day get in touch, the guys at www.facebook.com/SUPforall will be happy to lend surface support for the swimmers on the day,

Great cause and best of luck!

lough gill swim

thanks very much bb, we would love to get you guys involved as it is a great fun day and SUPers always add to the colour and excitement.

we have tom from perfect day lending a hand on his SUP as well and he took some video with my gopro at the photocall in the lake which will feature in our new promo. the evelavted position is great for things like that.

i've PMd you
many thanks

lough gill swim

so we did the launch last night for this where our new promotional video premiered. was great fun and did some daft promotional pictures too!
the theme was hawaiin nights i think

promethius

map of the swim route

lough gill swim

promethius

video of the swimmers training last week in the garavogue river
well worth a watch, some nice shots of the river in there too

Mint Sauce

Unreal distance. Especially in open water, kudus and goodluck to all involved.

promethius

poster for the swim

http://postimage.org/image/xr31zpdez/

banjobongo

I have entered for this event and am looking forward to it. I will be swimming it without a wetsuit. The longest swim I have done before was a 5K swim. I have a quick question about the event, will there be any way to drink/eat during the race? If so, how would this work (forgive me if the question sounds stupid, I have not done a 10K before), does each swimmer bring their own stuff or will it be provided on the day, in the lake?

promethius

banjobongo wrote: »

I have entered for this event and am looking forward to it. I will be swimming it without a wetsuit. The longest swim I have done before was a 5K swim. I have a quick question about the event, will there be any way to drink/eat during the race? If so, how would this work (forgive me if the question sounds stupid, I have not done a 10K before), does each swimmer bring their own stuff or will it be provided on the day, in the lake?

first off well done on taking on this challenge, it won't be easy of course but nothing great is :-)

yes there's a way of feeding and drinking. the kayak which accompanies you (everyone has a kayak to themselves) will be able to carry the drinks and food you need. the organisers will supply some drinks and energy gels (as far as i know) in the goodie bag which could be used. But you should def bring these yourself, so that you're used to them and know exactly what you have. for example, an energy gel you don't like could make you feel pretty uncomfortable while swimming. you can ask the kayaker to give you food/drink at time or distance intervals. mars bars or something along those lines also work but i find energy gels best for swimming. get your kayaker to give your food to you open, its hard to do it with wet cold hands.

good luck!

banjobongo

Thanks promethius! I have never taken any of these energy bars/gels before. When doing a triathlon for example I would eat bannanas and drink plain water. Would these do for the 10K swim do you think or should I really check out these gels? If so, where do you get tehse gels, from a chemist?

promethius

i would tend to go with something you trust. the thing i find with a swim is that i don't like a lot of bulk in the food i'm taking in so energy gels are a concentrated way of getting energy in quickly.

you'd get them in any cycling shop or sports shop. they're a bit pricey mind

lough gill swim

one of our swimmers, shane, has set up a mycharity webpage to help in his fundraising for the event charity, the NW Hospice Sligo.

Mint Sauce

banjobongo wrote: »

Thanks promethius! I have never taken any of these energy bars/gels before. When doing a triathlon for example I would eat bannanas and drink plain water. Would these do for the 10K swim do you think or should I really check out these gels? If so, where do you get tehse gels, from a chemist?

Not sure about for swimming, but genneraly if you have not used a sports supplement, or any other nutrution before, the days up to or on the day its self is not the time to start.

Some people, including my self the odd time find the gels can cause cramps, some thing which you might not want to get during a marathon swim.

As for buying them, I do now Holland & Barrett in the Quayside sell them for a couple of euro, with sometimes two for ones, or second half price, etc etc.