If my knee is going to be Goofy, I might as well be too.

I've started to read Born To Run and I'm obsessed.  Holy cow is it good, and insanely inspiring.  As I was reading it on my lunch break on Friday I was just itching to run.  The knee hadn't been bothering me walking around so I decided to give it a whirl.  Plus it was gorgeous weather outside.  Sunny but crisp and cool.  Catching a tan + minimal sweat?  Where can I sign up? 

When I first started the run, I was surprised at how great my legs felt.  No pain.  Around a mile to a mile and a half I started feeling the same "pressure" under and around my knee cap that I originally had felt last week.  Based on Marissa's advice (from Scott's blog iRunner) it was okay to run on my knee as long as it wasn't affecting my form.  I did a quick analysis and deemed that I was okay.  It was uncomfortable, but it didn't hurt.  There were periods in the run that were completely normal, and then other times (running downhill) that weren't fun.  After my first downhill stretch, I decided to walk on the remaining ones, just to be safe.  One thing I did notice while running is that when I was running without thinking (meaning my bad heel-striking form) I had no knee pain.  When I was focused on forefoot striking was when I had the pressure feeling.  Also, when my speed was a bit quicker ~9 minute pace, there was no pain, while my standard "easy" run pace of 9:30 caused some discomfort.  So weird.  I had wanted to go as far as my knee would let me, and finally decided to call it a day at 5.5 miles.

I did 5.5 miles in 51:50 for a pace of 9:26.

I will be purchasing a knee strap this weekend to hopefully alleviate some of the pressure on my knee cap while running, and also working on some strengthening to the areas surrounding my knee cap.  I also did some revamping of my marathon schedule as I'm now only 10 weeks from the Vegas MARATHON!!!!  Uh holy poo.  Oh, and I'm running the Twin Cities 10 Miler next weekend.  You hear that knee?  Shape up or ship out!  Jk.  Please don't ship out.  Love you.

I realize I shouldn't even be mentioning this given my current issues with being healthy.  But I'm toying with the idea of taking on the Goofy Challenge this year!  For those of you who don't know what the Goofy Challenge is, it takes place in January at Disney World.  You complete the half marathon on Saturday, and then the full marathon on Sunday.  It's Goofy because you have to be insane to do it (and to shell out the $$$ to do it...holy crapoli!)

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I originally had planned on doing it in 2012, but when Alyssa mentioned that she was doing it this year, it didn't take much to convince me.  Especially after I realized flights to Orlando were reasonably priced in January!  Well then I had Jenn half-convinced to participate, and maybe even Susan, and before I knew it, not only did I want to participate, but I also wanted us to dress us as Disney Princesses for the marathon portion.  (I've already set my sights on Tinkerbell, while not technically a princess, she is dressed in green so it only seems right.)

Granted all of this decision making went on before the great knee issue of Fall 2010, so we'll see how quickly I'm back to normal running Jeri.  Our tentative game plan would be to race the half on Saturday, and then do a complete fun run for the marathon on Sunday....obviously if we're dressing up....  :)  Based on how my IT bands feel after an HM race, a walk-run method would definitely be employed along with taking TONS OF PICTURES.  Ok, just putting all this down on paper makes me want to do it so terribly bad.  Hopefully the legs are on the same page as me.  :)