I had my appointment to get my knee checked out last Friday, where the doctor confirmed my suspicions of “runner’s knee”. He talked a lot about what is and what causes it and what to strengthen to prevent it, but I came away feeling like I got little or no useful information as far as whether it would still be possible to train to run the marathon. As far as I could tell, he was saying don’t run until the pain is gone, and only cross-train and work on strengthening the leg muscles until then. Well, that doesn’t help me much because I don’t have access to cross-training equipment, and “don’t run if it hurts” is useless advice to me, because I only find out if it hurts by running to test it out. If it hurts, I shouldn’t have run. Great.

I spoke with my TnT mentor (after my appointment) and she shared some of her experience with runner’s knee, and it sounded like the doctor she saw gave her more useful advice and alternatives and she managed to train through it. I hoped my guy would be like that, and specifically looked for a sports medicine guy for that reason, but even though I reminded him more than once that I was training for a marathon I hoped to run on April 29, I felt like he was talking to me like I was just a guy who liked to run for exercise so it wouldn’t matter to stop running for several weeks. I’m tempted to see Varda’s doc for a second opinion (more for the advice than the diagnosis), but honestly, I’m so far off the training schedule now I can’t see the point. I haven’t done any serious running in over a month, and if I’m weeks away (my doctors’ estimate) from being back to normal, I just can’t see how I would ever catch back up and be ready in time.

The good news – at least, that’s how I’m trying to look at it – is that walking doesn’t hurt, so I’m re-adjusting my sights to walk the marathon. My biggest challenge with that won’t be physical, but psychological, because as far as the training goes, walking is more boring and time-consuming (especially solo), and I don’t feel like I’ve really done anything when I’m done. The only thing I feel like I need to train are my feet so they don’t blisters. I could be underestimating how tough it really will be, but I know 10 miles a couple weeks ago felt very easy except for the blisters that were just starting to form toward the end.

I got the schedule for the walkers (who train separately from the runners), so I guess I’ll be switching to that group this weekend. I’m disappointed that I can’t continue training with the running coaches and teammates that I’ve already started to get to know, but one thing that every person I’ve met through TNT has in common so far is that everyone has been nice and friendly. I’m sure I’ll like the walkers, and if my ego can stop whining about not getting to run my first marathon, I may even enjoy the walking. At any rate, I’m still curing cancer, so it’s all good.