injury 08.07.2024

In a vale of tears – the left knee

Highly motivated, I resume my running training at home. Intervals according to Coach Dan’s instructions. But within the first week, I feel my left knee again. There’s a long story behind it: in 1973 (!) I had a bad fall while skiing and injured my knee. Hours later, my knee was badly swollen and I could hardly walk for a week. Sepp, my best childhood friend, who also had a problem knee, had read about Dr. Faber, the best sports and knee specialist at the time, in the major sports magazine “Der Sport”.

I was soon in his consulting room, which was full of thank-you letters from the famous sports stars of the time. The diagnosis: meniscus surgery. The healing process didn’t take long and I felt liberated. That same summer, young and in love, I spent a whole summer with my sweetheart on the alp, together with 160 cattle and a cow that we had to look after. Many hours a day up and down the mountains. My knee held up – and for decades afterward, so did my many marathons. In between, I regularly felt slight pain, especially when running downhill. But it always went away.

It was only towards the end of my last Ironman competitions that my left knee started to hurt when I ran. That was the reason to stop running altogether. From around 2016, the pain also increased significantly when walking, I started to limp and was already wondering whether an artificial knee joint would be an option in the end. Consultation with an experienced orthopaedist and sports doctor in St. Gallen. The x-rays show: No more meniscus, just bone on bone in the knee! Doctor’s recommendation to me as an athlete: lots of cycling and targeted strength training!

I’ve stuck to this consistently over the last few years, disciplined week after week, summer and winter. And lo and behold, the pain slowly but surely decreased until it disappeared completely. Euphoric and proud of this success, having helped myself through my own efforts, I came up with the crazy idea of finishing another Ironman a year ago.

The third discipline of the Ironman is running, a full marathon. Can I do it again? I don’t know.


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