Last Sunday was my return to racing for the 2014 season with the Boulder Peak 5150 (5150 race series meaning the total miles in an Olympic distance triathlon). It was a bit of a last minute decision to enter the race as I had been rehabbing since late March from my foot surgery (neurmoma removal and plantar plate ligament repair). My training had been going well since I came to Boulder the end of May, and a local race seemed like a good chance to get back in the race of things.
After focusing on 70.3 and Ironman racing for the last 6 years, I went into this race thinking it would be a walk in the park, but I was quickly proven wrong! I realized about 200m into the swim that a 1500m all out swim is a whole other world of hurt compared to a 4km Ironman swim. And a 40km bike timetrial followed by a fast 10km run? I would have to say that most days I would pick the 180km bike and 42km run of an Ironman!
Anyway, back to the race. Despite having to wear running shoes for both transitions (running barefoot is still yet to be checked off the rehab list), I was happy to finish 10th in the pro women. With the 10km run being my longest in 10months, I'm sure it didn't look pretty, and I'll likely be recovering for another couple of days yet!;) As happy as I was to finish top 10, I was even happier to be back racing again, and to have a happy right foot for the first time in almost a year. So it's back to training now and back to planning the rest of my season. Onwards and upwards!:)