The Old Knee Injury Comes Back to Haunt Me

I have been running off and on for about 5 years now. Never anything too serious. A couple times a week for two to three miles, but this year I decided to expand my running dreams. I decided I was going to train for a 1/2 marathon. I knew many people who had done one before, and it seemed like an easy enough goal for me. While we were in Austin for Dad's 60th birthday, Brandon and I talked about it and we decided to run the Cowtown 1/2 Marathon in February. When I told Dad the next morning what we had decided, he said that he wanted to do it, too. I was very surprised because he always hated running, but it sounded like a great goal for us all to do together. A family of non-runners, running a 1/2 marathon together...sounded like a great plan! We each got our own little running program going, and everything was going great. Dad got up to 6 miles, and I was right behind him. Brandon was doing great, too. Then Dad hurt his foot, then my knee started bothering me. Suddenly, our dreams were looking like they were going to be much harder to acheive than we originally planned. I went to the doctor, and he told me that my knee had the wear and tear of someone in their late 40s. Great, so now I not only have wrinkles like someone in their 40s, but I also have a 40 year old knee! He told me that I would have to have a new knee at some point in my life. The more miles and wear I put on it now, the sooner I would have to have it replaced. He told me that I might as well keep running because it will only get more difficult as I get older, so I decided to just go for it. Unfortunately when I ran over 4 miles, I could barely walk down the stairs the next day. My worst fear was that it would get to be where I could not even do my normal 2-3 miles runs! After feeling slightly disappointed, but trying to be logical, I decided to go down to the 10K. Brandon and Dad were okay with that, so we are on for our fun family day of running 6.2 miles! I am looking forward to it. I still wish that I was doing the 1/2, and I feel a little bit like a wimp for giving up. I know that I could have fought through the pain, blah, blah, blah - but at what cost? We will run the 10K, enjoy ourselves, accomplish a goal, and still be able to walk the next day. :) Sounds good to me!