Terenzo Bozzone takes 5th @ Challenge Roth IM

“During the end of May, my ankle decided to flare up during the morning before flying out to Europe to kick-off some racing and Challenge Roth preparation. I didn’t think much of it, but I could barely walk on my foot once I arrived in Europe. Unfortunately, with good preparation under my belt, I had to pull out of the Challenge Championships in Samorin that weekend.”

“From there I went to my base in Girona, Spain to have an MRI and a PRP injection to speed up the healing process. Turned out I had some bone edema on my lateral calcaneus. I suspect this was brought on by a slight roll on my ankle which didn’t realign properly by itself. This was the perfect opportunity to work on my biking and what a great place to do it in Girona, Spain!”

“After 3.5 weeks of no running and a lot of aqua jogging, I was back gradually progressing my running. 10 days out from Challenge Roth I had a good 30km run with no pain (not a bad progression in 5 days of running…) and my legs felt like they were feeling race -ready once again.”

“Unfortunately, on race day things just didn’t fire and the frustrating thing is I can’t quite figure out why. From the off, I was starting to struggle. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack at the start of the swim and for the life of me I couldn’t find my legs on the bike. This was the worst I had felt on the bike in the previous 6 weeks. I managed to hold it together and get through Challenge Roth with no ankle pain and had a 5^th place finish. Outside of my performance, it was everything I expected it to be. A great atmosphere brought on by the spectators as well as an amazing experience; I definitely will return to race to my potential.”

“With a quick stop back in New Zealand to pick up the family, I woud up contracting pneumonia and a pretty bad virus from Cavallo (Darn child care…). It forced me flat on my back for a couple weeks, but I am now finding my feet again and getting rolling. Unfortunately, after a lot of discussions with my coach and doctors, we have decided to pull out of the ITU long distance World Champs in Penticton and the Ironman 70.3 World Champs in Chattanooga and focus my energy on getting ready for the big showdown in Kona in October.”