Rookie Mistake?

So I sort of feel like an idiot.

I went to the clinic last night at the Running Spot and saw an orthopedic doctor. He made me walk back and forth like a gazillion times, stretched out my legs and asked "so how are you on stretching?" Whoops. My feeble answer of "uh, not too good" was answered with "I thought so." Turns out my "injury" is just really really tight muscles. So tight that he could feel muscle spasms in my calf (this was why I stopped running on Saturday). My pain is mostly because of not stretching but also because my knees are really really weird. By that, I mean, my knees turn inward when they should be facing forward. He said that this puts a lot more strain on my IT band every time I run. He gave me a bunch of stretches that I need to do twice a night. Oh and massage. Which of course, I am not going to object to.

I need to be vigilant about this so that I don't get hurt!

Maybe if I do this stretching I might be able to do things that normal people can do (like bend over and touch my toes). I honestly am tired of not being limber at all. I was always the girl in ballet who couldn't do half of the moves at the barre while my sister was little miss bendy. (Mind you, I never did anything about it...like stretch).

So this is good. And (for now) I don't have to mentally make plans for what I am going to do if I can't run the marathon - which makes me happy.