.
yes?
re-lace your shoes so they don’t criss cross at all. you can find pics on the runnersworld or runningtimes website, I think.
Ah, not a lot to go by there champ! 
Most common cause of dorsal foot pain in runners though are laces too tight as tigerchik mentioned (and I believe knows about herself)
This can be exacerbated by bungee/speed laces that triathletes often use, a high arched foot or “saddle bone” deformity (essentially a dorsal exostosis off the 1st met-cuneiform or navicular-cuneiform joint).
I’ve also gotten it from shoes with too-stiff of uppers. Laces were pretty loose on those shoes as well.
dont know what happened to what i wrote for my post when i hit submit but it was supposed to say something like this
In the middle of an hours run today i got a sharp pain just to the outside of my ankle and towards the forefront of my foot. it was like a needle was stuck into my skin with a sharp and numbing pain happening for about 25 seconds. this pain radiated all the way down the top of my foot. this happened about 3-4 times about 1 minute apart and then i was ok for the last 15 minutes of my run. this has never happened to me before and ive been running for a while. any help? and sorry for the blank original post
Could be a stress fracture developing. I had similar pains on the top of my foot that would come and go. Kept running for several weeks and the pain suddenly intensified. X-ray showed that a stress fracture had turned into a fracture, which meant lots of down time. Just something to consider as you continue training…
Question for your rroof after pulling up this old thread. I have developed a similar problem in my right foot, 2.5 weeks from IM Coz. It started last week on a long run. My shoes were admittedly too tight, but 5 days later and the pain continues. When I flex my toes, it feels like the pain you have from an ankle sprain, but across the top of the foot and is centered right where the first metatarsal “joins up” with the second (I am a layman, so my description is, well, very “lay”). any thoughts?
Sharp/stab usually equals nerve: Sounds like dorsal neuritis, like rroof and tigerchik said could be internal issue (cysst, spur/exostosis) or more commonly in my experience with runners external pressure (shoe fit, lacing, overlay, upper…).
Check shoe fit (running and walking), tongue position on running shoe, change lacing as an easy differential dx, else go see a podiatrist, CPed or good PT that knows feet.
Any recent change in footwear or next generation of same shoe?
Cheers!
i’ve continually encountered severe and sharp pains all throughout my feet and spine, all the way up to the back of my head and i’ve only come to the conclusion that it is a full on body alignment issue for myself. i’ve been here though, years ago i used to run and run and run and i could feel myself straightening and finally, after all kinds of hourly contorsions which could be construed as stretching, my back finally popped back into place and that was all she wrote as i felt unstoppable and all with no pain, all ease, all smooth. and my lungs opened up, fully.
and since those years ago the problem has come back and my problem stretched over into the bike as well as much as very recently as in all the time i’ve owned one. my body being so off, i could hardly keep a straight line on the bike or couldn’t keep it steady rather but always ‘jerky’. not smooth.
so in conclusion, run through it and it’ll work itself out. you’re just being weak. 
Question for your rroof after pulling up this old thread. I have developed a similar problem in my right foot, 2.5 weeks from IM Coz. It started last week on a long run. My shoes were admittedly too tight, but 5 days later and the pain continues. When I flex my toes, it feels like the pain you have from an ankle sprain, but across the top of the foot and is centered right where the first metatarsal “joins up” with the second (I am a layman, so my description is, well, very “lay”). any thoughts?
This is a common area of shoe irritation in runners, esp if you have a high arch and have shoes tight. Should resolve on its own in time. This would NOT be a common place for a stress fx, so probably good there. Occasionally, a Lisfranc’s lig sprain can manifest with pain in that area, but usually take more of a traumatic incident to cause. As with all things, hands on is best, but I’d give it up to another 10 days. good luck
Thanks. So the podiatrist today tells me not to do IM Coz. Said I am hopelessly hosed because of tendonitis in foot, which has found its way to back of heel. I can’t really accept his advise, even though he may be medically correct. He told me it would take at least a week to 10 days to heal up, and then “I would be out of shape” which I wanted to laugh at. BTW, he confirmed that there is no stress fracture. Do you have a different course of action.
Sounds like another opinion is in order. Also, how did he arrive at this diagnosis? MRI? You never mentioned any pain in the posterior heel/achilles, is this new and from limping/compensation?
A good diagnosis is of paramount importance - treatment if far easier then. Might want to ask around the local running clubs, stores, etc. who they recommend.
I had similar symptoms and changed the lacing on my shoes. I used version 1 here:
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-267--12334-0,00.html
Skipped a couple of rows of crossovers and within two weeks of regular running my foot felt fine.
In my case, however, I had been suspecting that my laces were too tight for a while, pre-pain—I cut my yankz too short. And a physical therapist gave me the OK to keep running on it.
If the doctor said skip the race you’ve trained a long time for, perhaps a second opinion would be worthwhile. I know that same type of pain can be something more serious. But for me at least it seemed to be just laces too tight.
I reported no pain in the heel/ankle area. Diagnosis was with a thing that looked (and sounded) like a tuning fork. I am going to an ortho guy this afternoon for a second.
I unfortunately am dealing with this now as well. One Xray (negative) and one MRI later, I have damage on the top of one of my feet, likely due to laces being too tight in my Nike Vomeros. Cost me 2 weeks of marathon training. My podiatrist says I need to find a pair that works well with very high arches… the issue not so much being the bottom of the foot, but the top of the foot pushing up against the tongue / laces of the shoe. Does anyone have recommendations for brands / models that have more height volume to avoid this?
thanks!
velcro!