“You have chronic osteoarthritis in your right hip and knee.” That’s not the kind of thing anyone wants to hear from a dour orthopaedic specialist, let alone a 31-year-old triathlete who hoped this was simply a sports injury that’d disappear with physio and rest.
Fast forward eight months and I’m about to start the 5km run at the Weston Park Sprint Triathlon, something I thought might never happen again on that rubbish day at the hospital. I take the first corner, find a rhythm and it almost feels like old times… until a massive hill appears and I’m reminded of my hugely haggard hip and knee, with a lamentable lack of run fitness thrown in for good measure. It’s a long old slog to the finish…
As you might have guessed, I’ve been on quite a journey since the diagnosis, and an even bigger one since my last triathlon, the 2019 age-group World Championships in Lausanne. Since then, a global pandemic happened, my leg stopped working properly, I moved house three times and met my long-suffering
