The other half of “Sisters of swim” is the the wonderful Amanda Kiani
Swimming for the local swimming club with my best friend in the same lane, ploughing up and down the pool. Training 3 times a week, galas on a Saturday (we had no idea who Knight Rider was, we had other plans for our Saturday nights). We trained at the old Hucknall Miners Welfare pool. This was obviously before chlorine levels were regulated, we used to arrive home with bright red eyes having to dunk our heads in a basin of water to try and soothe them.
My sister, who was also a member of the swim club, and I would beg our mum to drop us off at the pool on her way to do the supermarket family food shop. Those sessions were more about underwater handstands and forward rolls.
Swimming also meant I was good at something at school, no one was ever going to want me on their team for a maths challenge but they wanted me for the swimming gala’s.
Fast forward to teenage years and the sudden awkward shyness of standing at the side of a pool in a swimming costume. Perhaps I didn’t like swimming so much after all.
I didn’t swim much for years after that. I found other ways to keep fit and joined different gyms.
Then when the lockdowns started and the gyms closed and we all had to find different ways to keep fit. I started running outside again and as the restrictions eased I could meet with groups in parks for Hiit sessions & yoga. I really began to enjoy being outside and so when my sister asked me to give open water swimming at spring lakes a go I said yes. Seriously thinking it would be a one off, but we both enjoyed it. Gentle breaststroke, taking in the birds swimming by us and flying overhead.
We kept going back and joined the Her Spirit ladies, a friendly, welcoming, inspiring group. Mainly encouraged by my sister, we attended Mel and JC’s swimming sessions to improve our freestyle. I was happy swimming breaststroke but found swimming frontcrawl for any length of time really challenging. But with their help, a couple of weeks ago, I managed the 2.5km around lake 3 (ok, with some breastroke, but it gave me chance to look at all the beautiful swans). I never thought I would get back into swimming, but swimming at Spring lakes with the Her Spiriters has been so much fun. Sometimes I’m not swimming my front crawl in a straight line, sometimes I want to stick with a really gentle breaststroke, sometimes I’m mainly looking forward to the after swim hotchoc and gossip catch up. But I look forward to going and always feel better afterwards.
My sister and I are now swim ambassadors. We’ve both really enjoyed rediscovering swimming and would love to encourage other people to give it a go.