Knee Pains during Peak training run with 9 days till Marathon

Question
John,

I know you have written a lot about knee pains.  But would love to get your thoughts on this.  

In 9 days, I am scheduled to run the Disney marathon.  At 41 I had not exercised much for a 10 year period and then began training 3 months ago.  My training was going great up until last Saturday for the 20 mile run.  At 17 my knees started getting sore, and ached very hard at finish with the right knee just about losing all strength.  I then stayed off them for three days, and yesterday went out to run 6.  After 3 miles, the ache started to return so I walked home from there.

After all this training, albeit for a compressed period, I would hate to walk away from the marathon, but don't want to be stupid or reckless and do permanent damage or extended damage to my knees.  I went today and: 1) picked up a knee brace for each knee 2) got my shoes checked 3) and got glucosamine and chondrostin with MSM (but know that supplements take more time than I have).  I can do excercises, but don't have the time to really better strengthen the surrounding muscles.  

So what is your best advise on how to proceed:  1) lay off until the race and give it a go, or 2) stop kidding myself and back out or 3) somewhere in between.

John

Answer
Hi John
I would just go out for walks for 30 to 40 minutes sat,sun.mon.tue,wed.thur 20 min light jog,fri 15min light jog sat OFF sun Marathon.Don't use the braces any more.Take 2 epson salt baths today sat and sunday for 25 minutes 4cups in hot bath.All your training has been done and absorbed into the body so this extra rest is going to give you a nice little edge.The worst that can happen is you might have to drop,and do not think you have anything to worry about doing any more lasting damage.The most important thing is deciding on what pace to go out at which is what your finishing time prediction will be.If you would like to discuss this over the phone to get this right your welcome to call and go over the plan.I know how important this is to you.Just go to my web site contact page John.

All the best

John