Team Endure to Cure member Nuala Moore is an ultra-distance swimmer hailing from Dingle, Ireland.  She has time and time again overcome challenges to achieve feats in the open seas to inspire people (such as swimming on a Guinness Book of World Record relay team around Ireland, and in the process, help advance the missions of various charitable causes over time.  On Sunday, August 7th, she will attempt to swim 26.4km in Lake Zurich in Switzerland.  Here is some insight on what she is doing, what she will be going through, and why she does it.  Enjoy!

The Swim of Self Transcendence.  By Nuala Moore

Marathon swimming is an amazing sport–for 10-12hours I will swim without any contact with my support boat.  My drinks will be passed to me and over the duration I will stop probably no longer than a minute or two each hour, which in itself will be a challenge as we all have the innate need for a chat and mingle.

Lake Zurich is a huge lake in the centre of Switzerland and each year a group of swimmers gather to swim 26.4km down the glorious length of coastline. I lived and worked in Switzerland in the town of Montreux, this is my first trip back in twenty years and I am excited at the thought of returning to swim, makes my visit all the more special. It’s never easy to go back to where you had fantastic memories so this is an amazing opportunity.

The Sri Chimnoy Marathon Team who organise the event aspire to push each athlete beyond their limits:
“The races are organised on the principles of self-transcendence, where each compete against themselves and his own previous capacities. Endurance races allow each competitor to go deep within and truly find the best within themselves in order to persevere and finish, and even though there are trophies for the leading finishers, in truth every athlete who completes such long distances is a winner.”

This year there are 12 women & 34 males swimming the event solo. To enter the swim you apply with your experience and if selected you are awarded a place. It is an honour to get accepted and I really look forward to the challenge. There are also a number of relay teams.

I am a sea swimmer who lives in Southwest Ireland

My biggest challenges will be buoyancy and heat.  The main difference between the lake and the sea is buoyancy. Whereby over the years my body fat levels have really added to my salt water swims with added buoyancy, the extra weight will make me sink more…I am dreading this element more than the swimming.  Feeding while trying to stay afloat is my nightmare!!

A lower body position adds challenge to the heads position going through the water-and puts extra pressure on the lower back as we have to work harder to leg kick and keep our feet high.

But challenges is all that there are and we factor them in.  I am keeping it in my mind that it’s only a day out and there are so many who would be delighted to experience what I do. I had hoped to do a lot more lake swimming but the weather and the summer/life in itself did not allow that to happen. In a way it is now allowing me to dig that little bit deeper to my mind.

On Saturday night we have a “Mountain of Silence” self transcendence concert where we allowed to reflect and enjoy the festivities.

My Taskmaster, Frances, driving me forward.

Sunday morning it’s a 5am wake up, have an early breakfast, get our bags transported to the start and finish line to have clothes at the end.  Organising the food for the day will be a huge challenge.  As of the time of this writing, I am still not 100% certain on a few items. The heat will be an interesting addition to our day.  I have never swum any distance in 20deg water, so overall it’s exciting. Frances is my crew and I’ll be lucky if I don’t get a paddle on the ass to hurry up. Frances is a tough task master.

Frances will be in charge of my day,calculating my nutrition and over 12 hrs her own feeding will be a challenge as well. I’ll panic every time I’ll see her eating. I’ll have to get a time release lock on my food box!!! Only joking.

I’m delighted to have a familiar face to focus on, there’s no whining! We’ve had a fantastic build up-the weather has been tough this summer-so as training went we meandered along.  Our water temperature was a challenging year.  We had weeks of incessant Northerly wind, wind that striped the body heat as my core tried tirelessy to maintain it.. I do not swim in pools so it’s been all cold water.

What can I say about Team Endure to Cure–I was drawn to their sense of possibility, their collective need and passionate desire to make every step/stroke count, their need to make every athlete and every effort special.  Every athlete has a different Mount Everest to conquer and a seperate need to fight their own battles, to break their own limits for the higher benefit of others.  Some need to go faster, some want speed but mostly we are all privledged to be there.

Since my events started in 2003, I have raised funds through my sport for various charities. There are an enormous volume of people who live vicariously through us, who are inspired by what we do. Who take on their own limits by realising that we all endure some pain, but it is minimal to the amount of help, inspiriation and most importantly funding we can raise to ensure that a child somewhere can maybe reach our age and enjoy some amazing adventure.

I am genuinely so looking forward to swimming Lake Zurich-to facing more challenges and mostly about having fun. Thanks for all the support I receive-without it achievements are lonely!