MEDINA, Ohio — Barbara Thomas is a triathlete. Swimming is her passion. Her mother was an athlete, her kids are too.
Even a torn hamstring couldn’t slow her down. Surgery fixed it and she went back to training and racing.
“I've done two ironman triathlons, and I placed in those, and then I've done 13 half diamonds and I went to worlds for the half in Australia. So now that I'm older I can travel and do these races,” Barbara said.
She calls herself an age grouper. At 68 years old, she’s winning some of these competitions around the world. She says there’s no excuse for the rest of us to get moving.
“You're never too old and age is mindset because I still try to be with my daughter, who's early 30s, and I want to keep up with her and my son. I have a friend, she's 85 and she's still doing it,” Barbara said.
She says it’s exercise that helps keep her body agile and young. Last year, all that racing and overuse led to a tear in her hamstring.
“I'd never had surgery before and my doctor said, 'We don’t have to do surgery, but if you want to run, you need surgery.' I said, ok, then I’ll do it, but I have a problem, I’m in the world championship for triathlete in Spain in September,” Barbara said.
That wasn’t an issue. Barbara’s first prescription was intense physical therapy. The goal was to get her as strong as possible to not only manage the surgery, but also help make recovery faster. It would also help her compete, even though she knew she wouldn’t win.
“I was going to PT three times a week for three months before my race,” Barbara said.
She took to PT as if it were training and then headed to Spain to race last September.
“Of course I wanted to win, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. But I had a great swim. I swam first in my age group, my bike was okay. My run, I ran 8:13 miles with a torn hamstring and I came in fourth, who would have known,” she said.
On Oct. 6, Dr. Jacob Calcei — an orthopedic surgeon at University Hospitals Drusinsky Sports Medicine Institute at Ahuja Medical Center — repaired Barbara’s hamstring. Her dedication to preparation and following doctors orders was impressive.
“There's no real limit on what we can do. You know, she is in incredible shape. She has worked super hard through therapy. She's had an excellent team pushing her along here and she's incredibly resilient. These kinds of things are really tough to come back from but she's rehabbing her way right back to getting back out there and competing,” Dr. Calcei said.
Barbara credits the physical therapy for helping her improve a few other things too.
“My balance now is like never before,” Barbara said. “We do a lot of mobility, which as we get older, mobility is the most important thing, we don't need to be lifting 200 pounds, we just need to be doing weights to keep that bone density.”
Her advice for the rest of us, just take the first step.
“We are so fortunate with the Metroparks, the towpath, the Cuyahoga National Park. I mean, we have so many places around here that are perfect to go for a walk. Get away from the TV, get away from the phone and go outside and enjoy the weather,” Barbara said.