The road to recovery after a serious injury is never easy, it can be a lengthy and difficult process. Injuries can be physically and emotionally draining. All the sweat, hard work and built-up progress dashed in a second. It is hard to stay positive when you are recovering from an injury, but it is important to do so. If you allow yourself to fall into a pity party about your circumstances, the healing process will be that much slower. And if it’s so disheartening for us age groupers, how much more for professional athletes?
One such athlete that has shown grit and perseverance in the midst of an injury to comeback stronger is Red Bull’s Lucy Charles-Barclay. Lucy’s road to recovery was recently capped by a second-place podium finish at the 2022 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
Lucy shares, “When I was diagnosed with my hip stress fracture my ultimate goal was not just to come back stronger in terms of fixing the injury, but I wanted to come back a stronger athlete full stop.”
“With the help of Red Bull and Red Bull Performance Center, we have dived into every single element of what it takes to be an elite level athlete. So, we’ve dialled my nutrition, my biomechanics, my psychology. We’ve gone into every single part of what makes me tick as an athlete. And I honestly can say that coming out on the other side of this injury; I am stronger, I am better, and I am ready to race again. I am so not done with this sport; I feel like I am progressing at a faster rate than I ever had in this come back journey.”
Lucy indeed proved that she is not yet done with the sport and will be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come. The 29-year-old Brit put in an impressive performance at this year’s VinFast IRONMAN World Championship, coming out of the water first in a time of 00:50:57 seconds, biking 04:43:12, running 3:02:49 and finishing in a total time of 08:41:37 which earned her a second-place podium spot.
“The race exceeded my expectations. At the beginning of the year, we found out that I had a fracture in my hip, we were told to write off the year by the specialists. A small part of me really wanted to be back on the island, we hadn’t been here in three years. We didn’t know it would be possible, but I had an amazing team around me that supported me the whole way and were incredibly patient with me. They never gave up that belief that I would be back. That gave me a lot of hope and we just worked away until eventually we got to the point where we knew I could be back racing at an IRONMAN World Championship level again. We didn’t know at what capacity that would be; might be to just compete but to end up coming away with a second place, it feels a lot more special than any other second places I’ve had. It feels like a win for me. This was the strongest I ever felt over this distance in terms of a consistent energy throughout the whole day and I am super happy with the result,” said Lucy.
Though dealt with an injury blow early this year, Lucy stayed positive and was determined, “The goal was to be able to race this year. A lot of the specialists told me to write off 2022 and start looking at 2023 but I love to race, it’s why I do this sport. I do really enjoy the training, but I live for racing, it’s what makes me an athlete. I really wanted to do some racing and Kona felt like a farfetched dream at the time, but it happened, and it was amazing.”
Stay positive because: ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!
Follow Lucy-Charles Barclay on Instagram here
