AFTER 15 months of training and hours upon hours spent immersed in icy cold waters, Carlow town resident Maighread McMahon has made history.
Maighread, who lives on the Blackbog Road, Carlow joined her friend Lyndsey Dunne in becoming the first-ever two-person Irish relay team to swim across the English Channel.
The girls’ epic journey began on Friday 1 July when they left Dover, England at 9am, and 13 hours and 53 minutes later they reached the French shore at Calais.
The relay worked with each spending two hours in the water, followed by two hours out of the water. “Lynsey instigated this,” revealed Maighread, who works with Diageo in Dublin. “I talked her into doing a triathlon and she talked me into doing this!”
“We felt delirious but tired when we finished,” admitted Maighread, who is originally from County Clare.
“It’s really only sinking in now; it is an achievement.”
The channel is 19 nautical miles, or 35 kilometres as the crow flies, and the girls spent every waking moment for the last 15 months in the water.
Their achievement is made all the more because they have managed to raise over €10,000 for the Irish Cancer Society.
Their website www.ourchannelswim.com documents the girls’ fantastic journey.