Just a week short of the six-month mark, I raced. Two months ago, I wasn’t sure I’d be racing at all this year, or at least not until much later in the season. Though I had been optimistic over the winter, my confidence dwindled when I stopped making progress, and I wondered if I would ever be the same again, and be able to train and compete at a high level. I contemplated retirement; I looked into going back to school, and even pondered the idea of getting a spot in a residency program this year (a.k.a. starting in a few weeks’ time). Each of these grand ideas stuck around for about a week, because as much as things sucked, and at times made me want to give up, the alternative options just did not seem worth it, so ultimately I chose to stay the course. I just needed to keep on keeping on and hope that eventually something would click, and it would (almost) be like nothing ever happened.