‘Marathon Man’ Alan Corcoran has reached Howth and Dublin Bay, 36 days into his 500km open water swimming challenge from the Causeway Coast to Tramore.
As previously reported on Afloat.ie, Alan took on the mammoth task after completing an already ambitious run around the island of Ireland — and becoming the first man to do so — in 2012 tribute to his father, former FAI president Milo Corcoran.
A previous attempt at the long-distance swim in 2017 after his father’s death ended prematurely when his support boat sank, which only made Alan more determined to get it done this time around.
And he surpassed his previous efforts when he crossed the North-South border at Carlingford Lough last week.
While Alan says he’s not as far along as he’d hoped by this stage — due to the typically temperamental conditions around the Irish coast — he’s reminded himself that “it’s a marathon, not a sprint”.
Alan is blogging his adventures on Facebook, charting all the highs and lows of his 80-odd hours of swimming this far — including his first jellyfish sting off the north Co Dublin coast.
And he’s also appealing for swimmers to join him in a mass sea swim event for the final stretch to Tramore later this month — and to raise finds for his chosen charities the Irish Heart Foundation and Solas Cancer Support Centre.