Injury Report: Achilles Tendon

It's just a minor strain. Gotta give it time to "heel". These days, I'm "tendon" to rush things.

I awoke today with some discomfort. The above puns eased the pain a bit. I was hit by a softball in the heel last night when I ran into 3rd base. The throw was low, and the 3rd Baseman didn't catch it, rather it connected solidly with the back of my running shoe. I was safe, he was all in my face and I just wanted to call time-out and stretch, but before I knew it, the game was back on and I was driven in to home.

In my past experience, this injury usually doesn't hurt right away, but rather brings delayed onset pain that can be quite immobilizing. I had a serious Achilles Tendon strain in the winter of 2007 while running around a snow-covered Burnaby Lake. I didn't warm up properly, went into high speed almost immediately, and didn't stop when I initially felt the discomfort, probably worsening the injury.

Most serious athletes would have immediately sat out the rest of the game so as not to further injure, but not this genius. Since we're the home team, we bat last, but only if we need it. The other guys are up now and it's their last chance to come back from our formidable 4-Run advantage. I'm in Center Field aka "My Office" and getting ready to run around. I had a nice catch, followed by a stupid throw, trying to catch the runner out back at first. My heel is stiff. Oh well, it's almost over. They rallied hard, but we managed to hold them to 3 runs, winning 9-8 I believe. I had such a lucky night before the incident. I successfully got on base every time I batted, reaching on 4 consecutive errors! 0 for 0 on the night.

Well, that's the last softball game of the season. There are playoffs and a Championship Match, but I won't be able to make them, unfortunately due to travel and important family commitments.

I'll be flying back to Saint John, NB to be with my family to support my Dad. It looks like his fight with Cancer is coming to a sad close. It's very disheartening, and requires my primary focus for the time being. My entries may be a little sparse for the coming few days, but rest assured, if times are getting tough, I'll turn to running as my solution, to strengthen mentally and to re-build my injured body before I unleash my full potential & crank it up a notch. Thanks for reading this by the way. I greatly appreciate it. - Nathan