Mullaghmore Swim

mloc123

http://www.thejournal.ie/bundoran-lifeboat-busy-at-sligo-triathlon-490237-Jun2012/

Conditions must have been pretty tough. Good to see they had plenty of water support in place.

keelang

yea the conditions were very tough for it waves were massive but the 2 lifeboats in my opinion, and in the opinions of others were the cause of even more waves coming in on top of us as they patrolled up and down the swim course! Suppose you have to take the good with the bad! :rolleyes:

promethius

i did this event. wind was blowing onto the beach so the swim to first buoy was into the chop. was about 1 - 1.5ft which is tricky swimming into. it was then side on for the rest of the swim meaning people swallowed a nice bit of water. in no way dangerous and it's a normal occurance for people not to finish swim of a triathlon for different reasons. 11 is more than normal for an event that size.

another well run event up there, no wonder it attracts so many competitors

The Big Red Button

I heard it was 45 swimmers had to be brought in. I guess my friend who told me that was just trying to save face!

To be fair, I did hear it was fairly rough out there.

Scarlet42

I did this...my first tri .. it was such a tough fight to get out to the yellow buoy .. looked up and couldn't believe the distance I still had to go .. it was very rough .. got good few mouthfulls of water before I decided to breath just from the one side!

El Director

Did this race two years ago and it is still my favorite sprint course that I have ever done.

Call me crazy, many have, but I love rough sea swims with big swells, something primitive and wild about it! Triathlon is supposed to be challenging, I wonder out of those 11 swimmers that had to be pulled how many of them were simply under prepared for the swim leg. I have seen triathlons where some swimmers are barely able to swim, endangering themselves and those who are part of the swim safety team. In Athy every year you see 'swimmers' literally grabbing the life boats, nearly toppling those in it and only after 100m or so! It's madness, irresponsible and unsafe. Before taking the plunge into tri - learn to swim first...triathlon 101 you'd have thought.

IMO if it's your first tri you should have to prove that you are a competent swimmer and have done SOME OW practice and are able to cover the distance in a pool, perhaps a letter from a swim coach or something, I don't know but it is something I have thought about before. IMO it's a better alternative than canceling swims just because it's a little rough. Anyway, sorry, rant over and I know it's possible that not all of the 11 were first timers.



#learntoswim

promethius

good call El D it's meant to be challenging and they were 100% correct to proceed with the swim leg of the event on saturday. there's been some media reports that have gone overboard (nautical pun there!) about the whole thing. paper never refuses ink etc of course.

opinions aside, 11 swimmers out of almost 400 were given assistance by a safety boat during the swim to get back to shore. This is a regular occurance at sea based triathlons and in a lake one i did this year as well.

people have to take responsibility for themselves as well as just leaving it all to the rescue crews. more time swimming in the sea in choppy conditions not just the flat days.

if they start cancelling swim legs for there being a small chop you can forget about it. the wind was blowing below the triathlon ireland guidelines for cancelling swims and there wasn't any significant ground swell.

i've swam in worse in triathlons than on saturday. it was bloody tough going but if it's easy people are after, plenty of try a tris in pools.

well done to mullaghmore for running another great event, 11 yrs on the go now. people as ever vote with their feet and this event has sold out consistently and quickly for years and that's for a reason.

i've no connection to it other than loving doing it.

griffin100

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20120618/GPG0101/306190024/High-Cliff-Triathlon-death-came-despite-rescue-efforts

I'm with ElD on this. OW swimming can be tough, far too many people take it for granted. If you're not able for the conditions sit on the sidelines rather than putting yourself and potentially others at risk. You're asked to sign swim proficiency declarations for a reason.

edit: I'm not suggesting that this unfortunate guy wasn't able for the swim, just trying to show that OW swimming has it's risks.

El Director

griffin100 wrote: »

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20120618/GPG0101/306190024/High-Cliff-Triathlon-death-came-despite-rescue-efforts

My god, that is very sad.

promethius

yes, brutally sad.

the tiniest little grain of comfort (in time) is that he went out doing something he obviously loved, but it's not much really is it.

puts a lot in context and would remind us we can never over do safety for swimming. rip