celeste atterton's IMC 2011 race report

I had a fabulous day at IMC :)

My swim was a little disappointing.... I was in the middle of a pack being dragged along until the way back. The sun was in my eyes and I couldn’t sight the buoys properly. I found myself alone and off course :(..... Made for a longer swim – drag!

But once I got on my bike it was all good. 5 km into my ride my Garmin battery crapped out on me (it’s never done that before), so I had no speed/pace, distance or time for my ride or run – boo! Oh well, didn’t dwell on it. I was very diligent about keeping hydrated & fueled. At every aid station I took the time to douse myself with water & poor ice down my jersey to keep cool. When I made it to Yellow Lake I was thrilled that I still felt so good. I spun up the hill passing everyone. I’ve never done that before in an event and did it ever feel amazing!!!

Made it back into T2 feeling great. Decided to down an Ensure to get some extra calories in for my run. When I started running my legs felt so good & springy I couldn’t believe it! But unfortunately all that spring made the Ensure in my tummy want to spring back up! Had to walk for 5 or so minutes to let it settle. Had some ice at the aid station which I find helps when my tummy is upset (mental noted – no Ensure in transition ever again!). Felt great the rest of the run with a fairly steady pace. Had mostly just water & bananas at the aid stations. In the last kilometer to the finish line I heard Steve King say “1 minute until the 14 hr”.... Unfortunately I couldn’t sprint that 1km in under 1 minute!!! Bummer that my watch died early on.... I’m sure I could have shaved time off to come under the hour. Anyway, I finished strong.... had so much still in my tank that I was a bit annoyed with myself for not going harder! But then again, I had such a positive, euphoric feeling day, that I wouldn’t have wanted to take away from that. All in all I was thrilled with how my IMC day went. I took over 1.5 hrs off of my previous time – woop woop!

Thank you so much for all of your support :)

Cheers,
Celeste