Guardedly optimistic

Yesterday morning my knees hurt so I started to do some hammy stretches and did them intermittantly throughout the day. By the end of the day my knees didn't hurt which doesn't mean they won't hurt when I run so last night when Sebastian was running away from me (because he loves to be chased) instead of running to him I strode out and ran past ham for about a 30 meter stride and then did the stride back again. I couldn't feel any pain so I'm thinking Hey! Maybe there's something to this stretching thing. From what I've read Patella tendanitis can happen because your hamstring and calf are too tight and pull on your foot causing you to overpronate and thus sort of put you patella and thus your kneecap out of place. Also the hip can go out of alignment which causes the ange of you upper leg bone (tibula?) to change its angle and also can cause your kneecap to shift. Anyway the alarm went off this morning and I shut my alarm clock off, sat on the floor and stretched my hamstrings before I even stood. I was amazed at how tight I was compared to the night before. I would probably have better luck running @ night because I'm so much looser but that really isn't an option right now. All of this just to say "I'm going to try and go for a run on the treadmill during my lunch break". I'm praying to God that the pain is no longer there. It's funny, I really NEED this running thing in the winter. The difference in my mental state is totally different from running to non-running winter time is totally different. I guess I just need something to make feel good about myself and I feel like crap when I'm not running. So anyway I'd like to go further mentally on future running plans but to be gaurded I'll wait till after I have a pain free run which I'm hoping will be in about 4 hours. Wish me luck.