Return to competition

I should have had a flock of humming birds in my stomach, but instead, heading for the start in Calella (that's 60 km north of Barcelona, all of thee geographically uneducated) I was calm as nerves-of-steel-hockey goalie Tim Thomas running on tranquilizers.  In fact, so calm I was worried being too calm.
After all, it was less than two months after the crash that sent me in an ambulance to hospital. I had been cycling since mid-March, but running and swimming much less.
Maybe it was a good thing we arrived three days ahead of the Barcelona Half Challenge, a rare luxury as long as the location is within the same time zone, plus or minus 1 hour. I was fearing boredom, but we used the spare time with Henrika Malmstroem (note the international spelling) for familiarizing ourselves with the bike course and getting used to the sea. I did a solid preparation 20K race-paced ride on friday, two days ahead of the race.
We were lucky as well in getting our bikes and luggage without delays, as some of our friends leaving Finland on friday didn't get their stuff due to an unannounced strike on the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.  In fact, I tried to get tickets for Finnair's friday afternoon flight, which we took last year, travelling with senior citizen Peter Groenholm (note the international spelling), but, since it was fully booked, opted for Lufthansa's thursday flight.
I had no idea what to expect before the swim, but the sea was calm at the 8.25 a.m. wave start and I could find a good lane and felt strong throughout. 33 mins exiting the water.
Felt strong as ever on the bike. Last year, the route was a little bit too short, some 85K, but this year it was a full 90K. I finished with a bike split of 2.22, which translates to close to 38kph on the average. The course, of course, was totally flat. Highest point 25 meters above sea level.
Only two guys overtook me on the bike – Finnish native Pablo Erat, and some other guy on a Cervelo P3 just like mine, except painted in world champion rainbow colours. No problems there.
It seems the 1/2-IM-specific bike workouts which I have been doing have been working well. I have done lots of, for example, 3-4 h rides where I do the last 1h at a forced, half ironman pace. 
On the run, on the other hand, at least two dozen guys ran past me during the first kilometers. Tells me something about my strengths/weaknesses. Haven't been running much fast tempo runs this year, whichs shows during a distance as short as 21K. The upside: I didn't get fatigued, and could pick up my pace towards the end, catching quite a few of those backs which I saw disappearing on the horizon during the first 5K. Two guys surprised me by sneaking up on me right before the finish line (I would like to see a shot of the finish camera, because I would like to contest them being ranked before me in the final results). Anyway, I finished 38th among a field of 226 contestants.
Next up is Ironman Nice. A little different bike course, but otherwise this was good rehearsal. Sea swim, and some Mediterranean heat during the run as well.