Darren’s 10-hour swimming challenge

Over the festive period, Darren Dunne swam 30km over a ten-hour period in an effort to raise money for Nenagh Order of Malta, who have been fundraising for a new ambulance with the support of various community groups from around Nenagh. This 30km swim amounted to 1,200 lengths of the pool in Nenagh Leisure Centre.

As a result of his challenge, Darren managed to raise €1021.90 in support of Nenagh Order of Malta. It was only after bumping into volunteers of Nenagh Order of Malta at a previous fundraising event, that inspired Darren to help.

“I saw the Order of Malta were doing a bit of fundraising, they had a 5k race at the Nenagh Éire Óg pitch. I was helping out working at that, and I was just chatting to [some of the volunteers]; and [realised] 40,000 is an awful lot of money to get to. I was planning a swim, so I just linked in,” explained Darren as to why he decided to help.

Tackling the Challenge

As explained by Darren, this 30km swim was broken up into different sets of lengths of the pool.

“I started at half seven, one of the lifeguards started with me,” commented Darren.

“It was about 28 minutes of swimming, two minutes bathroom and refuel, I was doing reps of four lengths, took 10 seconds rest, and repeated that,” he continued.

Speaking to the Nenagh Guardian, Darren shared that he was surprised the challenge went as well as it did.

“I think it went very well. I didn’t cramp, I didn’t fall apart, I didn’t lose my mind!” chuckled Darren.

Due to his college workload whilst completing his second degree, Darren found he hadn’t as much time to train as he had planned.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of training done [for this challenge]. It was largely just faith and optimism. I think it ended up being 8 hours 18 minutes of swimming over just under 10 hours,” shared Darren.

“I finished in 9 hours, 56 minutes and I had 10 hours to do it,

“If you do 30km in less than 10hours, it’s like less than 30 seconds a length. I was trying to nudge it under 10 hours and play the numbers game while I was swimming,” added Darren, outlining how he motivated himself to keep swimming at a certain pace during the challenge.

Supporters of his swim

Throughout his swim, Darren was joined by friends who swam alongside him for portions of his swim.

“It was sort of just a rolling crew,” he expressed.

“We didn’t bother with any music. I had a speaker there, but there were just enough people there just chit chatting and enjoying the day,” highlighted Darren as to how much everyone enjoyed swimming together while he undertook his challenge.

Darren was also assisted in his swim by members of Nenagh Neptune Swimming Club, Nenagh Triathlon Club, and Nenagh Leisure Centre’s lifeguard team.

Successful Fundraising Efforts

Darren was delighted with the success of his swim and the amount he was able to fundraise for Nenagh's Order of Malta unit, especially since the event was held during the Christmas period.

“I didn’t have any aspirations of hitting a target or anything. We literally just left a bucket in reception with like a sign saying swimmers going around all day,” explained Darren, highlighting how he didn’t really have to prompt people to donate.

“It’s nice to know they are getting sorted and we all got a nice day from it,” concluded Darren, pointing out how the Nenagh Order of Malta unit are getting closer and closer to their target for a new ambulance unit.