I feel accomplished – physically speaking.

Quick rewind. In early September of last year (2020) a group of us dads in the neighborhood went to play soccer at a local sports facility. It was great. Nothing to serious, meaning no slide tackles or roughness, etc. It was a great friendly match and personally it was great getting back on the pitch after such a long time.

However, at some point I must have done a wrong move, pivot or the such because my knee felt tender afterwards. We played for an hour and a half and all was fine. The next morning, to my surprise I woke up with a swollen knee. I went ahead and did the standard RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevate) treatment and along with some sports creams hoped that it was nothing all to serious (:-) ), but as it only seemed to get worse during the course of the day, I went to the orthopedic doctor across the street who sent me down the next day for an MRI.

I got the results and the day after, with a still swollen knee, now limping fairly hard, went back to the doc who said I had torn my cartilage in 2 areas. The initial treatment suggestion was 6 weeks of rest and then needle therapy with injections. We talked about triathlons a bit, and he also noted that I won’t be able to ride a bike properly anymore, as the movement will cause significant pain in the future due to the place of the injuries. Running will eventually be possible. I was a little perplex, but took at as it is.

Well it has now been 283 days since the injury and yesterday I finally did it!

I ran – actually ran (albeit a small limp), a full 100m, jogging with my sons.

They were so proud, that the younger one stopped afterwards and said: “Dad, run again. I want to see you do it again.” When I heard that, I wanted to show that we did it. The first small steps to recovery.

I have been working hard trying to train the area, the muscles, doing exercises every evening, various stretches and movements, and albeit still having pain and not being able to fully push through on the bike pedal when on the trainer, I AM MAKING PROGRESS. And ultimately, putting in the work is paying off, because like with all things in life, progress, for a greater purpose, is a success.

#blessed #thankful