Who out there is missing some of their meniscus and can still run w/o pain?

I tore the Meniscus on both of my knees. The right one and then 2 months later the left one.

 I was supposed to go for surgery but instead did an intensive 6 week physical therapy routine and since then have kept up with the crosstraining/ strength training and I run relatively pain free. Initially I would use aspercreme on my knees and it worked great. But I don't even need that anymore.

I've spoken to people who have gone for the surgery and are pain free. It just takes time. There is hope.

I sometimes feel a bit of irritation after a long run, but otherwise no issues.  To the Chirunning comment, I did pick up the book/video at the ING Expo (Atlanta) and am looking to incorporate same as a means to ensure a "longer non-shelf" life...

I don't have a lateral meniscus anymore, and they took out a third of my medial. I have plenty of pain free days. If I go for a run and it starts to hurt, I give it five minutes. If it's still hurting, I stop. That's very rare though. I make sure I warm up enough (I try to bike at least a little before each run). I take Celebrex every day, and fish oil capsules. I started taking glucosamine & chordroitin again, but mostly for my other joints.

Good luck!

I'll take "relatively " pain free....at least it will be better than training on it all last summer, doing a sprint and an Oly Tri thinking it was tendonitis. Ouch.

On glucosimine too.

Thanks everyone. Nice to know all of you are still out there doing your thang.

I will let ya know how it goes.

My knee feels better now then it did for years prior to the surgery.  I can run/bike/whatever with it with no pain.

You can do it *8)

Many years of abuse and 2 meniscus tear surgeries has left me with basically nil left on my right knee. I swim, bike and run with little to no pain. Long distance runs (10+ miles) on concrete starts to make it sore, but it makes the rest of my body sore too so its not because the meniscus is gone. I take glucosimine/chondroitin daily. I think that along with the building of leg strength and flexibility makes it pain free

this is all great news...

 anyone remember how long after the surgery you started running again? I will be six weeks out tomorrow and have cycled, swam, strength trained and done lots of yoga...still pretty nervous to run. My ortho siad start on a treadmill at a 4% incline...if I have any pain to stop...

what did you all do? if ya remember...

ps mine was medial meniscus-

Lost 80% of right lateral meniscus.  I have been able to train for IMAZ this year. I agree with this advice. ChiRunning helped A LOT.

Oh, I did many hours of PT. Just graduated last week when I got to within a degree of my full range of motion on my good leg. Still working the strength part of pt, but doing the exercises at my gym on my own.

Thanks for all the good advice everyone. I think I will order Chi Running too as I have heard so much about if from so many people.

Wow, I didn't realize how much company I had .  I had about a third of my left lateral meniscus out 22 years ago, and had the right repaired 18 years ago.  The repaired one actually twinges as much as the other.  I don't run high mileage, though.  One of the reasons I like triathlon is that I feel like the crosstraining is better for my knees, and will let me be "competitive" (major italics needed) longer than running daily. 

My one word of advice is DO PT!  I didn't have access to decent PT after my repair and I still don't have full range of motion in that knee.