My name is Sarah Crane. I am a personal trainer and professional bodybuilder. So why am I doing triathlons? The challenge! Just beingin shape will not make you have a great experience doing a new sport, but meeting Celeste St. Pierre made it an experience I will never forget!
It all started as a near death experience at the Timberman Sprint Tri. I thought “I can swim 1/4 mile,” I finished that swim but there was truly nothing that resembled swimming about it. I thought I was really going to die out there. I set my thoughts rolling on how could I get better and actually swim.
I didn’t know anyone who did swim lessons and was not sure where to start. Then there was the day I saw Celeste St. Pierre at the King Pine Tri. She was on her trainer warming up before her race. I could not believe those wonderful legs! As I was telling a friend about this woman that I had seen, she proclaimed “That’s Celeste, my swim coach.” And so the journey began.
Early spring 2010, I hired Celeste and drove from Nashua, NH to Lincoln, NH for my lessons. I was frustrated that I could not just be told what to do and do it. It was through the progressive steps from Celeste that I slowly began to swim. She was patient and thorough. It took me that entire year of practicing many drills and not doing a whole lot of continual swimming — but that was about to happen.
I the winter of 2011, I finally got a membership to a gym with a pool and practiced three times a week what Celeste was teaching me. With continued lessons, the drills became strokes and the strokes became lengths of the pool and the lengths became laps! It was a miracle in my eyes!
I then decided to hire Celeste for my Triathlon training as well. She started to guide me and help me build my endurance and avoid injuries; I was ready to do a race again.
I signed up for another sprint tri. Not only did I not finish last as I had done the previous year in my age group, I came in 4th in the swim! And as the race continued I applied what I was learning and conditioning for with Celeste’s coaching and I not only won the age group, I came in 2nd overall! I was very happy but I wanted more.
I made the decision to change focus and do a 1/2 iron distance triathlon– a big jump for sure. On September 24, 2011, I did it! With Celeste’s expertise and support all the way through I had the most phenomenal experience of my life. My conditioning was dead on, my nutrition was great, the mental focus unbreakable. It was my day.
I crossed that finish line in time to take my age group and also the title of Master Champion! It was a day that I can say was in the top five experiences of my entire life. I would not have had that success without the knowledge and support that Celeste provided me.
This year 2012, I will train again, with Celeste and do my first full distance Triathlon-Ironman. I know if I apply what she has given me that I will be as ready as I can be. If you want to be the best you can be or just try something new, Celeste will take you there.
