I began my weight loss journey in October 2015. I just woke up one day and decided I was tired of being 150 pounds overweight.

I started by making small changes. First up: no fast food. This forced me to plan ahead and prepare healthy snacks, since I couldn’t just drive through and grad a quick lunch/dinner. The next few changes were to log my food, go gluten free (for other reasons being weight loss), add a daily yoga challenge, cut diet coke.  I was down  35 lbs by January and I knew I could not keep putting off the inevitable: I had to add cardio.

At almost 300 lbs, no cardio is fun. Walking a mile took 20+ minutes and was so very painful.  But I mused out loud one day, on Facebook, that two things that could get me moving are my love of Disney and Star Wars.   That April marked the inaugural Dark Side races at Walt Disney World. Sadly, the races were long sold out. Alas…a friend chimed in and told me race bibs were available through charities and within 24 hours, I was signed up for a 10k!

That week, I started training with Jeff Galloway’s Run-Walk-Run method. I was slow. Everything hurt. Especially my ankles. But I dutifully ran my two short runs and one long run each week.  I started with just 5 seconds of running.  I had previously attempted couch to 5K programs before, but always failed when the run intervals got longer.  Jeff Galloway not only says it’s ok to keep the walk intervals the whole time, but it’s preferable: for maintaining longer term stamina, injury prevention, etc.

I also committed to one official race per month. I ran a small, untimed, local 5k in Feb. The larger Atlanta Women’s 5k in March and then headed down to Orlando and actually (barely) finished the Dark Side 10k. One day I’ll link a race recap here.

That 10k was so hard, so painful.  I kept training and ran a redemption 10k on Memorial Day. Still hard, but much less pain. By this time, I got cocky and signed up for both Star Wars runDisney half marathons in 2017 because I wanted the Kessel Run medal – a special Millennium Falcon coast to coast medal. But first, I figured I’d get the 13.1 mon key off my back locally with the Jeff Galloway 13.1 race in December. Everyone assured me that as long as I trained, I could do it!

Over the summer heat, I kept training, running the Pride 5k, the Peachtree Road Race and an Obstacle Course Run. I lucked into a last min bib for the Disneyland 10k! What a dream Anaheim is! So flat, so not-humid. I had the best time at this race. Never saw the sweepers, finished feeling great.

A few more 5Ks and keeping up with my three runs per week… and then the first big race: the Atlanta 10 Miler! I was scared to death to run double digits. But I finished! Strong! Upright! I had 6 weeks til my first half and I was going to make it!

Long story longer, a couple weeks later, on my 11 mile training run, I hurt my knee. I could not even walk around my house,  the pain was intense. I tried PT, massage, and finally resorted to seeing an ortho. I scrapped my first half, the JG13.1, but wasn’t ready to give up on the Star Wars races. The Dr took one look at my Xrays and determined that I had severe Osteoarthritis (OA) in both knees and that I would eventually need two total knee replacements (TKR) but I was too young. But in the meantime, his recommendation was that I should never run again.

I cried, I complained, I joined a gym, I rode bikes, I wasn’t giving up. But the left knee just wasn’t getting better. I walked 5 miles of the first Star Wars Half Marathon in Anaheim, before I was swept.

I wasn’t yet ready to give up the half in Orlando. Besides, runDisney doesn’t offer refunds or deferrals. I worked back up to 4, 5, 6 miles. I shortened my intervals to :15/:45, my pace was getting back but I still had pain. Not so much while running, but significant pain afterwards. I pushed for an MRI, thinking maybe there was some sort of ligament damage.

Which brings us to now. At the MRI review appointment, he told me my patella was significantly out of alignment and being damaged more by every step.  He no longer recommended that I wait for the TKR, lest I continue to damage the patella and potentially lose even more mobility.  I’m 44 years old and have scheduled two Total Knee Replacement surgeries in 2017, instead of the two half marathons I was hoping to run.