I ran into an old friend at the lake this evening. I cleaned for her years ago when I had my housecleaning business and I became friends with her family. A lot has transpired for her over the past year and we were catching up. At the end of our conversation she happened to say "So keep me posted with the running and writing...so your knees are holding up and everything?" I laughed and said that I actually have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon on Monday to see what he has to say about the MRI I just had on my knee. She then said that her daughter thinks that anyone who runs is crazy because it's just going to mess up your knees. I just smiled. "I'd be crazy not to run", I thought.
All you have to do is google is running bad for your knees and numerous articles citing a plethora of research about running and its effect on the knee pop up, all with the same conclusion: Nope, it's not. The research doesn't support it. Runners World has a great article from May 24, 2020 called "Will Running Ruin Your Knees? Here are the facts." But I didn't even need to look at that.
I don't know for sure if running has contributed to my knee issue or not. But I can tell you for certain what running has done for me: it gave me back my life. My physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual strength flooded back in because I started running. The ship was righted and my life put back on course because of running. I have a way to understand myself because of running. I have a teacher in running and a community to look to for a positive and challenging way to approach life. I have gone places and done things that I never could have imagined for myself because I run. And the people that I've met from running are the bomb.
So, maybe my knees took a small hit--but so what? The jury is out on that and it wouldn't change a thing anyway, because I run for my life. And precious little could stop me.