Thank you all! I really appreciate all of the inspiration.

I do have a couple of small issues I'm working on - and will watch very carefully as I start to experiment (did a little last night late with no apparent ill effects). I have a knee that's been grumpy since a direct impact fall on concrete (sporadic pain, mainly on stairs). It's been X-rayed and had an MRI. The doc can't find anything wrong, and the PT can't either. Short of scoping the knee, they've told me to just go with it. It has been well over a year - but the more exercise I do, the better it feels - so I'm going with it.

They did OK tri's - well, they think I'm crazy for my ultimate long distance goal, but otherwise are OK with it.

I'll go in search of shoes. I have Fivefingers that I wear hiking and around - but I don't want to put that much stress on my feet (and knee) yet (have been working on dropped metatarsal heads that are improving and were not aggravated last night). I have a pair of shoes that may or may not be running specific that I played with last night - I'll be looking for something with a wider toe box as those are a tiny bit narrow. And I'll look for something with not much drop - any recommendations? My feet have really taken the fivefingers to heart and have widened in the toe significantly (not a bad thing - just an odd fit thing).

Thanks again - you all rock!