Runner's Knee

My first week of training is finished.  Even better, I met my fundraising goal for the week.  All in all, a successful marathon training week.

My long run this weekend was 7 miles.  I didn't do so well...my left knee got really sore once we hit 3 miles so we cut the run short about 2 miles and "speed walked" home.  It was kind of a bummer, but I think I just tweaked it running the half marathon a couple weeks ago.  I'll just rub some dirt on it and I'll be okay.

Any time I have any aches or pains, running induced or not, I attempt self-diagnosis.  My initial go-to is Google, of course.  I Google EVERYTHING because Google has everything you could ever need.  Just recently, I interviewed three different people for a cashier position we had available.  I picked one person and couldn't figure out what to say to the other two.  Since I found them through Craigslist (not recommended, by the way), I decided emailing would be most appropriate.  So I googled "how to reject someone for a position."  Here is my favorite hit.  My goal was to find a sample letter that I could copy and paste thinking it would save me time.  Instead I wasted a half hour going through the search results and began to realize what a huge dork I am.  I ended up writing the e-mail all by myself.  It was 2 lines and took 30 seconds.  But I feel my google perusing gave me a good knowledge base.


The last time I googled a possible ailment was at work last year.  I didn't feel well, so I decided I was going to get everything done early so I could go home and rest.  Feeling short of breath was the only symptom I could pinpoint.  I just couldn't fill my lungs all the way.  Otherwise, I just felt like crap.  When I mentioned this to my boss, she seemed genuinely concerned and said "you may want to check that out, Al."  I'm pretty sure by "check that out" she meant "Google it," so Google it I did.  I gathered all the information I could find from my all-truth, all-knowing web sites like Wikipedia and WebMD (you know, the legitimate ones) and found that my shortness of breath could be a symptom of one of three things:

1. I am having a heart attack
2. My cancer radiation treatment is the culprit
3. I was bitten by a venomous snake.  (Not sure what kind of snake, @iamdoctorish needed a bit more information before releasing the full details of my analysis.)

Since I was still walking around and not currently undergoing chemotherapy I figured I could rule out 1 and 2.  Number 3 was a little unnerving.

Naturally, when my knee started hurting I figured there was no better place to turn other than good 'ole trusty Google.  I typed in "sharp ache kneecap running."  Can you believe that what came up was Runner's Knee?  Google is so smart.  So there it is, kids, I have runner's knee.  It's fairly common among hardcore athletes such as myself, so no need to worry.  I'll just wear a cool kneestrap.  It just makes me look more legit anyway.  It will help me move faster when I'm running away from all the venomous snakes hanging around Mass Ave.