Can I run again if I have surgery either partial or full knee replacement?

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I still haven't mastered that "stair gallup" yet, Jerseychick...maybe one day!!! I think I'll need to be quite a bit lighter in weight to make that happen. And I'm working on that!!
 
Dick Beardsley has indeed had a second knee replacement - last October. And he is running again; his last tweet said he had just gone for a 7 mile run. He lives in Austin, TX. My husband and I met him 2 years ago at the Boston Marathon expo; he does a lot of motivational speaking for New Balance. He IS on Twitter and Facebook and has a blog on Google's blogspot which he isn't very good about keeping up. The tweets are better. He also got hooked on pain meds some years ago for back pain and has been "straight" for 12 years now; he started a foundation to help people with similar problems. He's a great guy and most older runners know that he almost won the Boston Marathon in the early 80's - dueled it out to the bitter end with Alberto Salazar and lost by 2 seconds!!!!; it's one of the more famous marathon finishes and he wrote a book about it.Which is very motivational for anyone with any kind of issues to read. Called "Staying the Course". Great guy and he is usually willing to answer questions and help people.

This study that Jo posted is the best news since I started recovering from my TKR!!!! Immediately it made me feel 10 years younger and I pushed myself to run a little more this AM and will do that every other day now when I run, instead of just stopping when I can't breathe anymore :)
 
Cool! I wonder if he'd come on BoneSmart a little bit? Wouldn't that be great?
 
I found Dick Beardsley on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. Sent him a friend request with a message about myself. He accepted my request then wrote me a very nice inspiring and encouraging e-mail. He told me to contact him any time I needed to talk or ask questions. Reading your comments about you pushing yourself to run more really makes me feel good like there really is hope for me too!
 
I will be galloping too Jersey Chick because I won't have it any other way!
 
Talk about galloping...I walk back and forth between schools all day long picking up and dropping off students. As much as I tell my students to walk, they like to skip across the parking lot. Well, I figured I might as well skip too and I did with no problems. I would have never been able to do that before surgery. I am loving my new bionic knee!:smile:
 
JC, you are a real hoot! I would love to have had a vid of that!
 
Hi!
I havent been able to run since high school due to my bad knees, I ski and cycle, but I do have a facebook friend named Dick Beardsley. He had records in the Boston Marathon, check out his website http://dickbeardsleyfoundation.org/
He has had his knees replaced and still runs!
Good luck and you will do great!
 
We already know about Dick, he's in our Celebrity knees thread in the Library!
 
I received a message from Dick Beardsley this morning. The Austin Marathon and Half Marathon was this past weekend, since Dick lives in Austin I asked if he participated in either event. I will paste below his very encouraging message to me.
Bonnie :)

facebook
Hi Bonnie,
Dick Beardsley commented on his status.
Dick wrote: "Hi Bonnie, I ran that morning just not in the half or marathon. I had my recent TKR about 4 and a half months ago. It's doing super and I'm back running 50+ miles a week right now. Take care and have a great day! :)"
 
Cool, Bonnie!!! Guess he really answered that question about whether a person can run or not after a TKR!!!
 
aflagsforworship.co.uk_jo_pic_images_thud.gif
 
Bonnie thanks for posting that message from Dick Beardsley. I have seen his posts about running 7 miles here and there but didn't realize he was back to what for me was the most weekly mileage I ever ran for marathon training. Phew! Just FYI he is also medium height and very thin and muscular. The perfect runner type.And he has the most incredible determination and discipline! It all has to work together.

Here's the link to Dick Beardsley's Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?email_confirmed=1#!/dick.beardsley

I'd like to hear more from more average runners like I was (best marathon was a 4:01; average was about 4:30). Because coming back to running is as difficult this time as it was the first time!!! As in work!!!! And I consider myself in decent shape aerobically.
 
It is good to hear from another runner Stephani and you are right, his weekly mileage is about the most that I ever did in marathon training as well. So if he is running 40 miles a week right now, I am not even looking to do that...I'd be happy to run 20 miles a week! But I still can't believe that I won't run a marathon again, I just cannot accept that. I still have some marathons left in me and I am not giving up. I don't even care what my finish time is, I just want to be able to do it. My training surface may change some and I'll save the concrete for marathon day. The messages I have posted here are what Dick Beardsley had already sent to me on Facebook. I went out and found him several weeks ago and sent him a friend request, he accepted and wrote me the nicest letter. I truly believe him when he says for me to let him know if I need any help at all. He is such a nice guy!

Bonnie :doggieshmooze:
 
Bonnie you are so right about Dick Beardsley; he's great! And for me he's the guinea pig - so to speak - to see how far you can carry the running.

I am like you. I finished 28 marathons including 13 NYC and 13 Bermuda. My husband still runs (we used to do it together) and qualified for 2 Boston's - which he ran, fortunately - because they're changing the time qualifications again and it will be much harder to get in.

Except for Boston when Frank ran (and I knew i could never have qualified so it was OK) -- I have not gone to a marathon start or finish in the 10 years since my knee began to fail me. I cry just watching on TV. It was so much a part of me -- just like you. I don't expect to ever run another but I AM running again and without any pain. And strangely, that's almost enough.

I searched and searched on line, trying to find someone who had finished a marathon after a TKR. I couldn't. Running, yes. Marathon --- no. But just last week someone told me about a friend with a TKR who is doing a cut down Ironman. At least half a marathon for the running part. So maybe?????

My surgeon told me before the operation that even the manufacurers ( he works with Zimmer) don't know how long these current replacements will last. They are talking in terms of 40 years but of course no one has been followed for any proof. So maybe if we run again they won't last that long. But if I have to get another in 15 years or so -- the techniques etc will be better and why worry about it now. Maybe you will be the poster child for running a marathon with a TKR or partial. But I would set my sights first on a 5K, then 10 K -- and go from there if you still want to.

You sound like me - goal oriented. I always believe anything is possible if you want it enough and work hard enough for it. Which I guess is why it was so difficult for me to believe I'd never do another marathon. Just like you said.
 
Yes Stephani, we are very much alike! I will be happy to be the guinea pig!!

This is how I see it...this new knee is supposed to last 30+ years. On March 13th I will turn 59 and get my RTKR two weeks later. So in 30+ years, I will be 89+. I don't imagine I will still be running at age 89, so - what if I use up a couple of years faster than normal if I am living my life in a way that makes me so happy and HEALTHY!

It is not so much as the race, as it is the running and the accomplishment of it. I really quit doing 5K's years ago because I just liked going out my door and running 10 miles instead. Occasionally I would run a 10K if friends were doing the same but still it was too short a distance, mostly I just run for the sake of running.

My husband does not run with me, but my 31 year old daughter does. Back in 1998 when I ran my first marathon my kids were age 16 and 19. They were so taken in by the experience that they wanted to run the Houston Marathon the following year. They both did 1999. It was such an awesome experience because when most people were worrying about what their teenagers might be doing on a Friday night, mine were home eating healthy and going to bed early for the Saturday morning training run for the marathon.

Mid July thru mid January the 3 of us were up and out the door doing long distance, after-wards home making ham and cheese omelets for breakfast. An experience I would trade for nothing else in this world. Turned out my son was good at it and finished the marathon that year in 3:40. A pretty good time for a first marathon for a 16 year old kid. After Houston 1999 my daughter took several years off but then started running again. We've trained for and run another 5 marathons together since that first one.

Last July I wrote us out a training schedule for Houston 2011. I registered for the Houston Marathon on July 8th, had my first MRI on on my knee July 15th and never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that I would not be able to run. I had a streak of 13 consecutive years of running the Houston Marathon. In Houston after you complete 10 marathons you are awarded Veteran status. There are perks that go along with it and I fought hard through injures over the years including this danged right knee to achieve Veteran status. I will always be a Veteran even if I never run Houston again, but I wanted to do at least 15 of them and get a really cool shirt with 15 hash marks down the sleeves and of course the shirt announcing loud and clear that I am a 15 year Veteran. Right now I have the 10 year Veteran shirt with 10 hash marks. I want that 15 year shirt!! (They only come in 5 year increments).

So in all I have run 24 marathons since I was 44 years old. My fastest was when I was age 53. I have run 13 Houston Marathons, NYC twice in 2000, and 2002 so I got to see NYC pre 9/11 and post 9/11. I've run the marathon in Portland, Oregon twice, Austin, Texas twice, Dallas, Texas, San Antonio, Texas, and Oklahoma City Marathon 3 times. My 25th marathon I just missed. My daughter trained with the schedule that I had written out for both of us. I rode my bicycle along side of her while she ran. I wore a back pack and carried her water and any other supplies she needed, we did all of her runs this way.

Since I was registered, I picked my my race number the weekend of the marathon. She and I stayed in a downtown Houston hotel the night before the marathon as we always did. Race morning we got up and dressed, and yes...I did put on running clothes and pinned on my race number it was #600 that said..."Bonnie - 13 year Veteran" Talk about torturing ones self, but this was the only way I could get into the runner's corral to see my daughter Lacy off at the start of what would be her first marathon to run without me.

I stood next to her in the pack of 20,000+ runners, we sang along to the National Anthem, then the 'BOOM' of the cannon went off and the runners were off. I kissed her goodbye and told her I loved her, then stepped aside to the curb. After all the runners passed by I walked (limping) alone back to the hotel, crying the entire way. My husband came and picked me up and we went around the city to see Lacy on the course. Mile 9, mile 17, mile 22, and the finish line.

That was just one month ago. It was a very hard weekend for me emotionally but I would not have missed it for the world. Lacy did fine and felt an all new sense of self accomplishment since she did it all on her own. Mom was not there this time to pull her along when she got tired. I refuse to accept that I cannot run with my daughter anymore, I am just ready to go get this new knee and get on with my life. I don't know when I can run again, I won't be stupid, but I will try!! My son still runs, and he is good! He ended up being a 4 year Letterman in Cross County and Track in high school, was offered college scholarships for running. All this because his Mom started running and it caught on with the kids. This is just too much a part of me to give up without a fight.

Sorry for going on so long, but now you know a little more about me.

Bonnie :dancy:
 
Thanks for sharing, Bonnie. You certainly have a wonderful bond with your children. That's so important and, like you....I'm betting you'll be running again.
 
You can find information about marathoners who've had knee replacements. You just have to keep working with your search terms. I did a quick search and found some folks.

Go to Google and search for: "knee replacement completed marathon". It's a start.

I was just passing through. I haven't been on the site for a bit, but was just checking in.
 
Well, hello you! Good to see you. :cat-kittyandsmiley:
 
Thank you Surfsister! I did just that and one of the articles was about a man named Randy Rendon right here in Houston who also has a streak going. Since he is a veteran too, I think I will seek him out and ask him some questions. Again, thank you for your interest and help!

Been home for 2 days with fever, aches, chills and an on fire throat! Got Strep! Good thing my surgery day is 24 days away!

Bonnie :doggieshmooze:


You can find information about marathoners who've had knee replacements. You just have to keep working with your search terms. I did a quick search and found some folks.

Go to Google and search for: "knee replacement completed marathon". It's a start.

I was just passing through. I haven't been on the site for a bit, but was just checking in.
 
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