The other day I got an email from someone asking me if I could talk to a friend. Turns out the friend was training for his first marathon – this November’s NYC Marathon – and he had come down with some knee pain. I’m no doctor – just the son of one – but I told the person I would gladly speak to her friend. “Have him give me a call,” I said.


A day or so later the friend called. His name was Rob, and he immediately started describing his ailment and when it all started. “I had been training well,” he said, his exasperation seeping through the phone line. “I got in my 14-miler, my 16-miler, but as soon I hit 18, my left knee started to ache.” Where? I asked. “On the side of my knee. Stairs are killers. And it’s incredibly frustrating. Because I can run for two miles and not feel a thing, but once I go above two miles, the pain is unreal. I can’t go a step farther.”


More depressing, he soon added, “the marathon is three weeks away. I’ve been training all summer. I’m afraid I’m going to have to bag it.”


From Runners World for New Balanceor what I thought, would be my first marathon. Until that summer I had been a very – and I mean very – casual runner. I hopped in for the occasional Corporate Challenge 5-K, running Central Park with the masses in a pair of Stan Smith tennis shoes. And once a year I made my way through a five-mile race at the Jersey Shore, motivated by the free sub sandwiches given away along the boardwalk after the race.


Then, one summer day, with the memory of friends running the NYC Marathon the previous November in mind, I decided to (what the heck!) start training for my first 26.2 miler. A friend gave me a 16-week training plan, scheduled me for a couple of half-marathons, and sent me on my way. And like a robot, I followed the plan, and went from 2 miles to 4 miles, 6 miles to 9 mile, 11 miles to my first half, 14 miles to 16 miles.


And then.


Ouch! My &%***@ knee.


The outside of my &%***@ knee ached like a bicuspid being drilled without Novocain. With 8 weeks to go before the marathon, I couldn’t run 2 miles without stalling out, hailing a cab to get me home, and whining to everyone, “My knee hurts. It weally, weally hurts.”


Turns out I had something called pattela-whachamacallit. A sports doc advised that I do therapy. “Your leg muscles are all off balance. Your hammies are as tight as piano strings,” she said. “That’s what’s helping to cause the pain. You’re out of shape – running shape.”


Then she asked, “How long have you been running?”


Nutrition - Weight Loss.


“Three months?! And you want to run a marathon?! What’s your rush?! Become a runner before you become a marathoner. Get your body in shape and then you can enjoy – as much as possible – the experience. Otherwise, you’re going to be injured the rest of your career.”


I did what I was told. I rehabbed and got my leg muscles stronger and working in tandem. I also deferred my marathon entry, and used the next two years to become a runner. I ran to get in shape for a running career, not just one marathon. Five marathons and a bunch of half’s later, I feel that I am the runner my doc wanted me to be. Not fast, not competitive, just not injured.


I gave that advice to Rob as well. I’m not sure if he will follow it. He told me he had a lot of people waiting to see him run his first marathon. He has to do what is best for him, but hopefully his marathon – whenever it comes – is the first of many. And many to enjoy.