Multisport: Recovering Sam Warriner battles to finish

Sam Warriner. Photo/File

Former Olympic triathlete Sam Warriner has continued her progression back into competition, embracing pain along the way.

The 42-year-old Warriner, who left international competition to start a family in 2012, struggled through her latest event to finish last in the women's pro field in the 70.3 race in Auckland on Sunday.

Warriner posted on her Facebook page that despite finishing last, she was happy with the result, shrugging off injury to finish.

"For the first time in three months I ran pain-free and am actually able to walk and feel semi-normal now," Warriner said of her performance, after coming out of the water second and then holding that position for the bike leg.

She said she has struggled to run without pain, trying many methods to reduce the discomfort.

"Last week [I] had a cortisone put into the tendon after imaging showed the tendon has all but healed and now we need to make it stronger to get me running again. So the cortisone was to get me through [Sunday] as I really wanted to just be out on the course.

"So going on to the run I had no expectations other than it was going to be a long 21km with about that much run training in my legs the past three months.

"It felt as though I was continually going to trip over my right foot as I didn't have the strength to lift my lower leg to where I normally carry, and there were a few stops along the way to say 'hi' to people I knew on the course - but I made it around in under five hours and I'm happy with that."

Warriner noted the main positive from the experience was that she could run again.

"[I] just need to listen to my own advice ... hurry slowly ... and I'll be back racing again before the end of the season."

Warriner recently held a training camp in Whangarei as part of her role with the Sweat7 training squad, with the idea of teaching them specific triathlon skills.