A STAR RETURNS TO THE WATER - DOROTHY MILLS

Every swimmer has a tale to tell, Dorothy, however came to the group in her quiet manner stating that she had done 'some' swimming before. Having completed numberous swims with us and raced several times this year Dorothy finally came out and wrote a short piece for the blog, which left me breathless. Dorothy, you see, had not told us of her acheivements, and they are considerable. And I am proud to let Dorothy tell her story complete with pictures, so sit back, read and enjoy the story of the start that swims amongst us!

DOROTHY MILLS - MY SWIMMING LIFE

My first visit to a swimming pool was when I was  9 years old.  School swimming lessons. I had never seen the inside of a pool until then. Doncaster Corporation Baths were for people to go and have a bath not for swimming in ??  Not many houses in the early 1950’s had baths in them, a tin bath in front of the fire was the norm.

To my mother’s astonishment I thoroughly enjoyed it, couldn’t get enough.  We went twice a week with school.  I quickly learned to swim breast stroke and back stroke.  It was only for pleasure, no swimming clubs for us.

In later years I took my kids to swimming lessons in Alnwick pool and then they joined Dolphins Swimming Club.  It was while I was sat watching that Rosie the coach asked if any parents would be interested in doing  Bronze Medallion, and helping out with the coaching.  She  then  persuaded 3 of us to train to do an outside swim at Kielder Reservoir Masters Open Water Championships..  Little did we know what we were letting ourselves in for.

Great North and Kielder medals



BLDSA rules, no wetsuits.  All training was done in the pool then the sea off Alnmouth, which was freezing cold.  Didn’t swim very far more an aclimatation exercise.

Got to Kielder and were attacked by a cloud of the famous Kielder midgies, just as bad as Scottish ones.  It was the middle of July 1986.

Winners trophy 1988

4 of us brave ladies, Rosie, Marcelle, Eileen and myself (masters age group over 30) jumped into the water from Leapleash jetty and started swimming for Tower Knowe jetty, which was 2 and a half miles away.  The water was very dark brown with the peat but we didn’t feel the cold. 1 hour and 51 minutes later I arrived at the Tower jetty.  I came in third that first time. It felt fantastic and I was hooked on open water swimming.

Went back again the next year and came in second and the third  year won the cup in a time of  1 hour 26 mins.  Unfortunately after retaining the cup in 1989 the h&s decided it was too dangerous to hold the event in its form and it never happened again.

Finishing the Kielder Marathon

                           

Kielder 1989



Kiedler 1988

me winning the Great North 1989

I also took part in the original Great North Swim which used to be done every year in the City Pool in Newcastle.  It was part of the Great North Run, Walk and Cycle ride series of events.  The swim was eventually dropped after a number of years but the others are still going strong.

When 3 years ago I heard they were starting a new event Great North Swim outdoors in Windermere I decided to try again, but the years have slowed me up a lot and I found swimming in a wetsuit very difficult so I joined Paulines group at Ellerton to train for this years event, now I’m hooked all over again with Epic and Capenwray swims.

I now look forward to dipping in to as many lakes and tarns in the Lakes and north of England as I can find.

THE END - or is it...a note from Pauline, Dorothy, has swam in several races this year, travels all over to find water to swim in and has made a ton of friends along the way, she now goes au nautral as we say, minus the wetsuit, when ever she can, it just goes to show that once a swimmer -ALWAYS A SWIMMER, and its a true pleasure for all of us to swim with you Dorothy. xx