Over50Newbie, I took a chi running workshop last year, and the running I did last year was using that method. I didn't have any knee pain, but I was terribly slow.

Re a second opinion, that's probably a good idea, even though I really respect and trust my thyroid doctor. He's certainly not an orthopedic doc, but he had a number of years as a primary care doctor before Kaiser switched him over to endocrinology exclusively, so he's seen a lot of injuries.

I'm not sure how I'd get a sports medicine doctor referral through my HMO, Kaiser, and I'm not so driven to run that I'm willing to spend a lot of money out of pocket going to a non-Kaiser doctor. Maybe I'll e-mail my primary care doctor and see what he thinks.

Thanks for all the opinions, ladies.