'It's all about the endorphin rush'

If the idea of plunging into freezing waters of 5C or less wearing just a swimsuit and a bathing cap sounds crazy, the first person to agree with you would probably be Cadamstown native, Claire Ryan, who is bidding to become the first woman in the world to complete 10 Ice Mile swims using the breaststroke only.

“It's all about the endorphin rush,” she admits. “And the amazing sense of achievement you get after a swim, but it is really, really challenging and difficult at the same time.”
While she was “an average swimmer” during her secondary school years in St Mary's in Edenderry, Claire Ryan says she became interested in open water swimming in later years and it was through her involvement with other like-minded enthusiasts that she first heard about ice mile swimming four years ago.
“The minute I heard about ice water swimming it just took over my imagination and I have been completely hooked on it ever since,” she says.
Ice Mile swimming is a cold water challenge which involves participants swimming one mile, under supervision, in water which is below 5C. 
Swims are ratified by the International Ice Swimming Association (IISA), whose aim is to have the extreme sport included in the 2022 Winter Olympics. 
The IISA recommend that all swimmers have an ECG before any ice mile attempt, and that they have a medical team on hand for the recovery phase at the end of the swim. It is a serious endeavour which should not be taken lightly, and even though Claire Ryan is well aware of the dangers involved she is very happy to take part.
While Olympic ambitions do not figure on her radar, she is one of the very few ice mile swimmers in the world to participate using the breaststroke, which she says is where she feels “most comfortable” even though it takes her longer to complete each ice mile than if she were using the conventional front water crawl.
“It takes me roughly 43 minutes to complete an ice mile in water of 5C or less,” she says. “And for people who have never been in water that cold, is it actually really difficult to imagine how the body reacts, it is as if your whole body is being hammered.”.
Each ice swimmer has to be closely monitored by a support team who keep talking to them throughout the swim to ensure that their cognitive functions are not being impaired. “As your core body temperature begins to drop, your blood thickens and your muscles slow down which makes each stroke much harder,” says Claire Ryan, who adds that her hands have often stiffened “into a claw” coming towards the end of a swim due to the extreme cold and the drop in her body temperature.
“The most dangerous part of any ice swim is when you get out of the water, by which time you need assistance to walk and you just feel really awful and in pain,” she says .“For me, and for most ice mile swimmers, the hardest part of the whole experience is the period between getting out of the water and having your body temperature slowly raised to its normal level.”
The process of restoring the body temperature – which will have dropped to hypothermia levels - can take anything from 25 minutes to two hours and involves being wrapped in hot towels and tinfoil and kept in a warm environment. “When the body can withstand it, we are given warm drinks, but when we fully recover the sense of euphoria and the endorphin rush is just incredible, and that's what makes all of us do it, I suppose,” admits Claire Ryan.
A private teaching tutor and a wedding photographer by trade, Claire is based in Dublin, and says she is lucky to live near the famous Forty Foot open water swimming facility where she swims four times a week. “As well as swimming at the Forty Foot, I also go to Clontarf Baths and the Upper Lake in Glendalough to do open water swimming practice,” she says. “But I always have somebody with me, as it is too dangerous to swim alone in such cold conditions.”
Claire Ryan admits to being “a real outdoors type of person” who loves nothing better than being immersed in nature.
In addition to swimming, she also enjoys rock climbing and hiking, and says she tries to get back to Cadamstown, close to Edenderry, as often as possible to visit her parents, Martin and Ann, and to catch up with her three siblings.
Having competed in an ice mile challenge in Poland, as well as six events in Ireland, Claire's ambition is be able to push her levels of endurance and her distance and she would also like to compete in an ice mile event in the Antarctic at some stage in the future.
“I just love the buzz of it, and the huge feeling of achievement after a swim,” she says. “And even though the dangers of the sport have to be recognised and appreciated, there is no better feeling.”