To run or not to run?

I feel a little bummed out after writing my last post then realizing yesterday that my running days might be numbered.  I noticed some pain in my right knee after the run on Sunday but thought like most of the little aches and pains and stiffness I had experienced previously from running it would ease off in a day or two and I would be fine.  It was still bothering me a fair bit yeserday, but I decided that I should try to do my run and thought it might help work out whatever was feeling uncomfortable.  I took it easy and managed to run about a kilometer before it started to hurt.  After another half a kilometer the pain was getting worse so I took a walking break.  Walking really did seem to help it feel better so I tried to run again after a couple of minutes and the more intense pain returned.  I walked for a few minutes and tried running a couple more times before deciding to walk home, disappointed.

I felt a little discouraged yesterday about all the hard work I had put into training for the last three months.  I know it has been good exercise, and for the most part I have really enjoyed it.  There have been only a few runs that I have really had to talk myself into doing.  Otherwise it was something I enjoyed doing. 

When I first started to consider the idea of running a half marathon, I remember asking Jay if he thought I was crazy.  He said no, but that it would be a lot of work, and that I would probably need to push myself to train as much as I would need to.  He said he didn't want to have to nag me to train, and I promised him he wouldn't have to.  I thought back to a client at work that I had talked to a few months ago.  She has two young daughters (maybe 7 and 9 years old) and she said that her daughters had expressed interest in taking music lessons.  She told me that she never tells them to practice.  She said that if they are serious about wanting to take lessons that they will put the necessary effort into it, and if they don't really want it, they won't.  I am not sure I completely agree with her reasoning, however, she did say that both of her girls just love playing music, and she has never had to get on their case about practicing.  I decided that if this is something I really wanted to do, that I would work at it, and do what it took to get there. 

Up until this week, I feel like I have given it a really good effort.  In the last twelve weeks I have ran three times/week and have probably only missed three runs out of all of those.  My plan for now is to take a week off of training and see how my knee does.  I hope to do some stretching, yoga and foam roller-ing to my legs to help them recover.  I called and made myself a physiotherapy appointment for next week.  It will be my first physio appointment I have ever had.  I am hoping that maybe they can give me some idea of what the problem is, and maybe some strenghtening or stretching exercises to work on to help it recover and hopefully I will be able to get back to running.  I will be okay if I can't run the half marathon.  If my leg does recover enough maybe I will see if I can transfer my registration to the 5k or 10k instead as my body seems to handle those distances a little better.