Hi ST,
Ran a 70.3 this past weekend and had excruciating pain in my #2 toes (index toes) of both feet. The pain started around mile 3 of the run and by mile 5 the best I could manage was repeats of 4 minutes of an awkward shuffle followed by a minute or two of walking. The pain subsided after the race when I was not putting pressure on my toes. I thought it was tendinitis, but looking on the interwebs, I see a lot of discussion of Morton's toe and Morton's neuroma. While the painful toes are longer than the big toe, the pain I feel is along the axis of the toe, not on the foot, which seems to rule out Morton's neuroma.
I think I might have the wrong shoe (as you might see below), but I'm not sure it's as simple as that. Has anyone had a similar situation, and what approaches have you used to fix it? I have seen info about pads, going 1/2 size up in the shoe and other things. If it is my shoe, any recommendations on how I can figure out the best shoe especially without having to buy many different pairs?
Any advice or info you might have would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike
Here are some more details:
- was wearing Asics Gel Nimbus 16, size 10-4E and never any problems
- Nov 2014 - 70.3 with no problems & 2 weeks later 13.1 with no problems
- new shoes - ASICS Gel Nimbus 17, seemed to fit just fine and were a little wider, size 10-4E. I have a wide toebox. I figured the wider would be better, and the shoe salesperson (running store, not Sports Authority or similar) said it was a better fit. But maybe going wider somehow spread things out more leading to greater pressure on the toe in question? I have always done well with the Gel Nimbus, but the 17 is quite different from the 16.
- May 2015 - 70.3 but DNF'd because of severe toe pain on the run - no real hints from training beforehand that I would have this pain but I only started using the 17's to break them in for this race.
- I thought perhaps the problem was my bike shoes were too tight (I have wide feet), so I bought a wider pair (Lakes). I never felt pain on the bike but my toes felt constricted and I thought that might be setting me up for pain on the run.
- After that I would feel a small amount of pain occasionally when running longer than 4 miles, but nothing major. So I tried tying my shoes differently as recommended to prevent toe pain. That is, putting one lace from the front directly to the back of the shoe through the opposite side. Didn't notice any improvement, although volume was still low. Overall, things were OK with some minor pain until...
- Nov 2015 - 70.3 described above. Finished only because I told myself I was not going to DNF again.
Ran a 70.3 this past weekend and had excruciating pain in my #2 toes (index toes) of both feet. The pain started around mile 3 of the run and by mile 5 the best I could manage was repeats of 4 minutes of an awkward shuffle followed by a minute or two of walking. The pain subsided after the race when I was not putting pressure on my toes. I thought it was tendinitis, but looking on the interwebs, I see a lot of discussion of Morton's toe and Morton's neuroma. While the painful toes are longer than the big toe, the pain I feel is along the axis of the toe, not on the foot, which seems to rule out Morton's neuroma.
I think I might have the wrong shoe (as you might see below), but I'm not sure it's as simple as that. Has anyone had a similar situation, and what approaches have you used to fix it? I have seen info about pads, going 1/2 size up in the shoe and other things. If it is my shoe, any recommendations on how I can figure out the best shoe especially without having to buy many different pairs?
Any advice or info you might have would be very much appreciated!
Thanks,
Mike
Here are some more details:
- was wearing Asics Gel Nimbus 16, size 10-4E and never any problems
- Nov 2014 - 70.3 with no problems & 2 weeks later 13.1 with no problems
- new shoes - ASICS Gel Nimbus 17, seemed to fit just fine and were a little wider, size 10-4E. I have a wide toebox. I figured the wider would be better, and the shoe salesperson (running store, not Sports Authority or similar) said it was a better fit. But maybe going wider somehow spread things out more leading to greater pressure on the toe in question? I have always done well with the Gel Nimbus, but the 17 is quite different from the 16.
- May 2015 - 70.3 but DNF'd because of severe toe pain on the run - no real hints from training beforehand that I would have this pain but I only started using the 17's to break them in for this race.
- I thought perhaps the problem was my bike shoes were too tight (I have wide feet), so I bought a wider pair (Lakes). I never felt pain on the bike but my toes felt constricted and I thought that might be setting me up for pain on the run.
- After that I would feel a small amount of pain occasionally when running longer than 4 miles, but nothing major. So I tried tying my shoes differently as recommended to prevent toe pain. That is, putting one lace from the front directly to the back of the shoe through the opposite side. Didn't notice any improvement, although volume was still low. Overall, things were OK with some minor pain until...
- Nov 2015 - 70.3 described above. Finished only because I told myself I was not going to DNF again.