Mid-life runners new beginnings

A minor mid-life crisis crept up on me when realizing that my 50th birthday was coming up in about 6 months and that I should really start doing "something" to get into some as semblance of being in shape before I started to fall apart. What to do? Since I used to enjoy the high of running back in my 20s', ran a Chicago marathon way back then. I really wanted to capture that 'feeling' again so I thought about running again. It happens that there's a great little greenway in Suwannee GA that runs along a creek for about 10 miles or so. This trail was a short walk from work and I began to run there at lunch. One problem.. It hurt! My knees were clicking and clacking and the shin splints after just a 3 mile run. It was not what I had in mind. After about 2 miles the knee would start hurting so much that I made a doctors appointment to have my knee scoped and the torn ligaments 'trimmed'. Just before getting the surgery done my co-worker having told me about this barefoot style of running that at the time I poo pooed but now for some reason (desperation) seemed like a good idea. I was a little afraid of running barefooted but really thought that the technique of barefoot running was a good idea after all. I picked up a pair a puma flex shoes because of their low price tag and minimum construction and began using them one week after my knee surgery. After those first calf burning weeks of training and reading all about the Taramahara tribe mentioned by the Born to Run book by Christopher MacDougall I was running 5 miles pain free. I soon found a pair of VFF shoes and use them mostly for training and kept enjoying running with these puma's. I kept it up for the past 15 months and have been out there for a daily (weather permitting) 5 mile run PAIN free. I really love that trail on the greenway as it takes me though paved surfaces, wooden planked in and out of swamp areas filled with cranes and herons, deer and other such animals, there are wooded dirt paths curving in and out of trees. I enjoy those dirt trails the most and find I'm running smoother, lighter and faster when I go into the dirt trails. Running those few miles on dirt trails in the woods makes me feel connected to the sprit runner in us all.