CELEBRITY personal trainer Karl Henry is still exhilarated after completing the epic swim from Baltimore to the Fastnet Rock last weekend.
The 42-year-old swam the 20km in a very impressive five hours and 34 minutes, despite a fear of swimming in the dark and jelly fish.
Karl, who lives near Clonakilty with his wife Jean and their two children, ‘got such a kick’ out of completing the Galley Head swim last summer, that he decided to take on the iconic Fastnet swim, under the guidance of open water swim coach Nathan Timmins.
Karl with his crew Kieran Collins, left, and Nathan Timmins.
He trained for the past 12 months with West Cork Tri Club and a group called the Hardy Bucks in Lough Hyne on Thursday mornings, in preparation for the swim that only a few hundred people have completed.
A weather opportunity opened up last Saturday and he set out from Baltimore at 4am.
‘I was petrified!’ Karl admitted. ‘I knew I had trained hard but I still wasn’t sure I could do it. It’s a very odd feeling looking out into the black before heading off, but I knew I had a good crew in Nathan and skipper Kieran Collins along with my own crew, Killian Deasy and Johnny O’Donovan.’
He had a good start, but debilitating motion sickness hit Karl at the 8km stage: ‘In that moment I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it. I was very sick for an hour, and projectile vomiting for around 10 minutes.’
Fortunately he recovered and with the tides and wind on his side, he made it to the Rock, even climbing up to get a photo, well ahead of the target he had set of between six and seven hours.
‘With around 4km to go you can see the lighthouse and at that point I knew it was possible,’ he said.
‘I work in this space and it’s nice to show what you can do if you get out of your comfort zone,’ he said.
Karl has now set himself the challenge of swimming to the Fastnet and back to Baltimore again and his advice to anyone thinking of doing something similar is to ‘dream a bit bigger.’
‘I wouldn’t be a natural athlete, just a normal punter who got out of his comfort zone and worked hard. You can do it too.’
