So the marathon's over, but my fund raising (and training) is not, so I'm going to keep up the blog for another couple of months. I went to the podiatrist yesterday to investigate this top of foot pain, and it turns out I don't have a stress fracture. Hooray! I was really glad to hear that since I'd really like to redeem my less than ideal time from Helsinki, and to stop the pain. As it turns out, my first metatarsals in each foot are not in line with the others and are, in fact, quite elevated. Evidently this means that the joint-bone-thing in the middle of my foot smashes against itself a lot more than it should. The doctor wasn't really sure why I was having so many issues with my right foot, but the constant irritation kept swelling it up and making it worse each time I ran. I have suspision that the reason my right foot is worse off is because that leg is shorter, but who knows. Anyway, rather than making me an expensive orthotic right off the bat, he made me a little temporary sleeve to wear while running that puts a pad underneath the rest of the metatarsals and "lifts" them to be in line with the first. I thought this was very nice and un-doctor-like of him. Most doctors, in my experience, would go for the expensive thing right off the bat without knowing if it works. Work, it does, however, because right away I could tell the difference standing on it. I'll have to test it out while running next week and then visit the doctor again to discuss results, but I'm pretty happy about it so far. If it does work I'll eventually have to invest in some orthotics, but I'll be happy if I can run without thinking my foot is cracking in half.

This entry was posted on 8.23.2007 at 7:33 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.