This was the text Jonathan and I got Friday night in our group text with James. There was one of two ways James blew out his knee: it was either from running or playing basketball. Turned out it was b-ball. James is an intense guy. He doesn’t have a medium speed, just off or full speed and he’ll go full speed with multiple things in his life concurrently.
At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 the three of us reunited via text and we discovered we all had started running regularly, independently of each other. We were all in our early 40s so I figured this must be some kind of midlife crisis shit. In 2020 I ran over 600 miles, but in 2021 I decided to up the goal to 2,000 miles. Meanwhile, James ran over 2,400 miles in 2021 (that’s over 6.5 miles per day, every day) in addition to being a husband, the father of 2 kids, and a corporate lawyer. Like I said, a full speed multi-tasker.
The three of us used to be drinking buddies back in Manhattan from 2000 until 2012, when my wife and I moved to LA. I’ve known them both since college. I bring up this New York stuff because I think the arc of our friendship is hilarious: from regularly getting wasted on weekdays in the city in our 20s & 30s — and doing zero exercise — to running daily in our 40s.
Of course James wasn’t only drinking with me and Jonathan. In the early ’00s James was working at a pharmaceutical company during the day, being bartender and floor manager at Plate 347 (347 First Avenue), and attending Brooklyn Law at night because that kind of schedule is totally reasonable, right?
But now I’m sad because for the foreseeable future James won’t be running.
Yesterday he texted us an update:
- Acute tear of the ACL.
- Tear of the posterior medial meniscus and the deep fibers of the MCL.
I don’t think there’s any avoiding surgery.
There are worse things that folks deal with but this is a fucking bummer.
It is a fucking bummer. James just completed 2,900 miles run in 2022 (!!!) and now this.
If you rev your engine too high you’re going to blow something.
Don’t be a hero. Know your limits so you can keep doing what you’re doing.
Stay vigilant.