Old lady knees.

Yep, apparently I have old lay knees. It started when I started running almost 2 months ago. I was fine until I started running over just a couple miles. My 1st 5-mile run almost killed me! I felt like an old, feeble little lady. I had to brace myself going down stairs, and it was incredibly painful to do squats (you know, the things you do when you move laundry in a stackable from the washer to the dryer...psh, I don't do squats just for fun!). I finally broke down and made an appointment to see an orthopedist. This was last week, before the Twilight 12k run. More on that later.

Today was my appointment, and they took x-rays of both knees and both ankles. After a barriage of questions and making me to heel raises, toe raises, walk pigeon toed, normally, etc, we then took a look at the x-rays. Basically, the cartilage between my patella and leg bones is worn down on the outside of both knees. His analogy was that of a tire tread. While I'm not running on bald tires, my tread is wearing a bit thin on one side. Nothing really medically they can do, so I'll be making hamstring stretches and working out the inner part of my quadracep (the vastus medialis...see, learning something new everyday!) more. The more loose the hamstrings are, the less tension in the knee, and the more developed the vastus medialis is (over the vastus lateralis-the outside part of the quad), the more relief I should get!

So...I can still run, and apparently it's fine just to try to run through the pain. But the more I do that, the more inflamed it can get, and the more it'll hurt later. Boo :( It's not going to stop me, though...my brother, Scott, is doing a half-marathon on the 18th (next Saturday), and as much as I feel like I want to do it with him, it's Brady's birthday, so I'll be busy making a cake and getting ready for his little get together. SO...the next half-marathon is the Skinny Raven in August, so I'm planning on doing that!

The Twilight 12k was a big success! It was the coldest evening Anchorage had seen in weeks, and was blowing pretty good too! We about froze our buns off before the race started. Speaking of which, we started right at the front of the line. We were right behind the Kenyans, and figured we'd probably get some good pictures, because, hey-everyone always checks the Kenyans out. Plus, it made us feel kinda cool to be running with them...even if it was literally only a minute or two until they were out of our sights!!! Those guys are plan FAST! Scott beat both George and I with a time of just under 58 minutes. I came in at just under an hour an 4 minutes, and George came in at just under an hour and 7 minutes! We all made darned good time, especially since it was George and I's longest race we've ever ran! Bear Tooth pizza, fruit, cookies, drinks (even a beer garden...if we drank!), etc were all waiting at the finish line, and that was a pretty nice dinner after 7.5 miles! George and I can't wait for the next race! I think we're hooked!

That is, if my old lady knees will hold out!