Hair stylist swims English Channel
BY JOHN ROSZKOWSKI jroszkowski@pioneerlocal.com October 3, 2011 7:42PM
Aurora Gore, 28, of Round Lake, swims in Lake Michigan off Simmons Island Beach in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Gore, a hairstylist at Tricoci Hair Salon in Libertyville, is training for a 21mile swim across the English Channel in memory of her stepfather who died of cancer. | Thomas Delany Jr.~ Sun-Times Media
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Updated: December 3, 2011 1:28AM
Aurora Gore has accomplished something only a few brave souls have ever done, completing a 21-mile swim across the English Channel.
The Round Lake resident swam the channel from Dover, England to the coast of France on Sept. 23 in a time of 14 hours and 10 minutes. She joins only about 1,000 people who have completed the crossing.
Gore said the swim was difficult, but also one of the most rewarding experiences of her life.
“It was pretty life-changing. It’s hard to believe your body can go through so much stress and carry you so far,” said Gore, 28, who works as a hair stylist at Mario Tricoci Hair Salon in Libertyville.
Gore started her swim from England at about 7 a.m. and didn’t make it to the coast of France near Calais until about 9 p.m. Gore said she thought she was going to make a much quicker time early in the swim, but got stuck in the currents about a mile-and-a-half from the French coast.
Gore said the hardest part of the swim was the pull of the currents in the channel, made worse by heavy ship traffic. Fortunately, her months of training swimming in Lake Michigan had prepared her for the challenge.
“The waves and currents felt very similar and I felt very prepared having swam in Lake Michigan,” she said.
The water temperature in the channel was only 58 degrees, but Gore also prepared well for that in advance by taking cold showers and sitting in tubs of ice water.
“I never felt cold the entire time,” she said.
Gore said the scariest part of the swim was the last mile approaching the French coastline in complete darkness. The beach area where she eventually landed was surrounded by rocks and a large cliff. Her swim coach swam the approach along side her because the boat that was riding next to her could not get that close to the shore.
“I actually fell on the rocks coming out of the water and scratched my legs up quite a bit,” Gore said. “The end was just scary not being able to see. Other than that, the rest of the swim was very enjoyable.”
She returned to England on the boat later that evening, exhausted and cold from her swim. Two days later, she went to the White Horse Pub in Dover, which has the names of the approximately 1,000 people that have completed the swim on the wall. The bar congratulated her and she was able to mark her name on the wall with the time and date of her swim.
Gore returned home to the United States on Sept. 27. Her co-workers at Mario Tricoci in Libertyville had put up a framed newspaper article with pictures about her swim at the front desk and at her work station. She also got calls and letters from friends and family members from her original hometown in Oregon.
Through her swim, Gore raised about $500 in donations for the Kellogh Cancer Center, in memory of her stepfather who died from cancer in 2001.
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