So my last marathon was 2 years ago in San Francisco and I did a 1/2 last year in Santa Barbara. I think it is high time for a full this year so i have to get back in the saddle again. Being a former ski instructor for 10 years, my knees have always given me reason to be cautious. I didn’t have any problems with them in my past races, but recently the weather and my training again has inflamed them a bit. I figure right now the best thing to do until all cartalidge and blood cells are back in tip top shape is to do 35-50 minute runs aka a slow 4-5 miles every other day. I counter it with rock climbing and biking on the opposite days, and i have 1 full day off. I am really bad at icing my knees though, and a specialist told me yesterday that every time we don’t ice the inflamation actually eats away at the tendons, cartilidge, and blood cells…surprised the hell out of me! Who knew that could happen! I thought that stretching would be enough, but that alone is just as bad as doing nothing, so guess i am icing every night. I am shooting for a marathon in Jan, or Feb possibly-although the niagra falls marathon looks like a blast-could you imaging crossing the canadian border with thousands of people just holding your passport going “sorry! can’t stop, racing here!!!”