New doctor: hello and good-bye

My hip surgeon cruelly left me in January, moving to Florida to open a private practice. He transitioned all his patients to another doctor in the practice, who also does hips (although I think he's more of a knee guy). I met Dr. Heard for my final post-op appointment.
The appointment was really brief. I don't have any complaints, and the things that cause me pain are exactly as expected. He wrote me a prescription to continue PT, and told me not to come back, so I guess that's that!
I reconfirmed with him the return-to-running date Dr. Van Sice had set - 12 weeks post-op. Dr. Heard is actually more conservative (I don't even see how that's possible) than Dr. Van Sice, and said he usually has patients back at 4 months, not 3, but he gave me the go-ahead. He said his choice of dates is mostly based on patients' reported pain, so just don't run if it hurts too much (but he reminded me again that it will hurt a little. Yep, I know!).
I did clear with him running the Crescent City Classic in April, and he said that was fine, too; he just made me promise to walk if it hurt.

The next thing on my recovery agenda is to start working on range of motion. I delayed that a lot, waiting for my internal stitches to heal, but it's time. I am pretty stiff and the ends of my range of motion cause pain - and I definitely want that taken care of before I return to running. I don't want ROM limitations to affect my form. I know it's going to hurt, but it's got to be done. Time to be friends with the stretching strap again!