Nikki Butterfield, the former Under-23 World Champion, was second place in the Boulder Ironman 5150 yesterday to make three podiums from three starts in her return to triathlon.
Her second place moved her up from sixth to first place on the 5150 Points Ranking System, qualifying her for the HyVee Triathlon in Des Moines Iowa on the 4th of September. HyVee Triathlon has the richest prize purse in the sport.
Nikki said:
“I really surprised myself yesterday, I wasn’t planning on racing after being on the road for three months, but I felt better coming back to altitude than I thought and I figured I had nothing to loose.”
“I swam way better than I expected- I was planning on being 4 minutes behind Annabel (the eventual winner) out of the water but I was only 3, then on the bike I rode similarly to Darmstadt but was able to put it together with a decent run this time rather than suffering like I did in my first race back.”
“Now it’s time to settle into a consistent routine with 8 weeks until HyVee, of course I would like to do well there.”
“I certainly didn’t expect to be leading the points table, the situations really favored me for my three races in this series. The first race was a time-trial start format and a wetsuit swim (Darmstadt), then Austria was a wetsuit swim as well and a hilly bike course, then Boulder was a hometown race with lots of support. Things couldn’t have favored me any better.”
“I really have to thank everyone who has supported me in returning to the sport.”
Nikki will now commence her specific training block for the million dollar race, HyVee Triathlon, in her adopted hometown Boulder Colorado.
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