I broke my toe yesterday. Broke the toe next to the big toe in 2 places (2 differnt bones).
The ER doc (the BF insisted I go to the ER and since he’s a doctor I listened to him…last time that will happen, since I sat in a freezing cold ER for 3 hours) said 4-6 weeks until it heals, but that i can run on it when the pain stops.
I have a follow up with my orthopedic guy the end of next week (follow up for my hand that I broke earlier this year) so I’m planning on asking him about the foot too, but he’s out of town until the day of the appt, and I don’t really want to have another appt to see another doc. But I’m wondering how long until it won’t hurt?
I’m not planning on running anytime soon, as I’m still healing my Achilles Tendinitis (yes I’m the walking wounded), but I was planning on starting to run again in a couple of weeks (1-2 miles 2-3 times a week), and really just want to know if anyone has experience with a broken toe, what can i expect as far as healing. I’m really tired of being injured this year. I’m planning on a HIM in November and am trying to decide if I’ll go through with it (2 more weeks until I can start to run, yes I will do it, 6 more weeks until I can start to run, I won’t do it).
I broke my toe before the swim start of a HIM last September. It sucked during the race, but I took a week off running afterwards while continuing to bike and swim. No long term bad effects so far. Ask your doc about just taping it to the next toe and running on it.
I’ve got it taped now, and they put me in some shoe thing to keep the pressure off of it. I did go for a ride yesterday after it happened, thinking it wasn’t broken, but by mile 15 I was in pain if there was any sort of hill, so I took it very easy and went home. I don’t think I could bike at all right now. So, maybe by the end of the week.
How did you break it? Poor GhiaGirl, not another broken bone
In my experience, fx take 6-8 weeks to heal, pain tends to dissipate after 2 wks or so. And if you run on it too soon they crack again (been there done that IT SUCKS).
I have a slightly different experience than the other posters…my broken pinky toe took SEVERAL WEEKS to heal enough to run on, and even then it was painful. Yeah I taped it and had the special ortho-shoe also. Bottom line is it ruined my running from July through the end of the year. Over the winter, it started to get sore after about 2 hours on the bike, and I couldn’t run more than 45 min or so. It’s now about a year later and for the first time I’m not noticing it at all. So - I think it depends on where it’s broken, and what idiotic things you do on it, like run a HIM 3 weeks after breaking it (like I did).
I broke my toe at Eagleman a few years ago and thought I would miss Lake Placid a few weeks later. I ended up missing biking for about a week and running for about two weeks. After that running was a bit painful for a while, but I was able to get my last few long runs in and race Lake Placid. If you are planning on a November 1/2 IM, I can’t imagine that you will not be able to do it. As a worst case scenario, you could get a lot of extra biking in and maybe do a couple of deep water runs so you don’t lose too much fitness if you are out for an extended period of time.
I guess it depends on how bad and where and what toe is broken and how fast you heal and yada yada. My experience is this. I broke my toe during the swim of IMFL 2005. Thought my day was over for sure but I crammed by deformed toed foot into my bike shoe anyway and said to hell with it, there is no way I’m running and blasted out a great fast ride. When the ride was over i must have had some endorphines goning through me so I put on my sneakers and headed out for the marathon… The pain was AWFUL the first couple of miles but developed a stride that I could handle the pain, plus some tylenol I was gratiously given by a nice gentleman. Ended up Finishing WOOHOO 11:11.
My foot was so swollen and ugly for about 4 days. It eventually all went away and I was running again in about 4 weeks. To this day my toe doesn’t sit perfectly with the rest of the gang but, at this point I’ll say it was worth it.
You’ll be running again soon, just give it some little tests as the days go by then when it feels ok, go for a run.
