To preface…I have the NYC marathon coming up in 12 days.
I have been experiencing pain on the top of my foot. It started a few weeks ago during a long run. Got home and my big toe was hurting pretty good. Since then I have been on the cycle of rested for a few days till the pain went away, then would go for a run, and the pain immediately came back. I read that it might be tight shoelaces, so I have kept them relatively loose. In essence, every time i try and dorsiflex my toe, it hurts on the top of my foot (right on the top, that bump on the top of the foot). If I manually press on the top of my foot, it hurts. Plantarflexion also hurts, but not nearly as bad as dorsiflexion. The more I read online, the more it sounds like extensor hallucis longus tendonitis. I have been icing it pretty regularly and taking advil.
What should I do? rest till the marathon and then go for it (scares me to take two weeks off of running before the race)? cortizone? PT? advil?
Keep icing it and try to roll some of the tension out of your lower legs and feet (namely the underfoot). It’s highly likely that some combination of foot weakness and inflexibility caused the problem. At this point, if you’re still planning to run NYC, your best bet is to keep things reasonably loose and avoid undue stress. Tight lacing can be a contributing factor - primarily in the sense that it causes you to alter the movement of your foot when it strikes the ground.
Sounds like a stress fracture. I have the same thing right now and my girlfriend had it last year…same feeling, same area. Mine flared up right before Redman in September. Was able to taper and actually run a nice race w/ very little pain. Recovered from that for about 2 weeks, and then started some light training in order to do Austin 70.3 on Sunday and it flared up again. Managed through it and race Sunday…now I’m planning on just taking as long as it takes for it to heal…from what I experienced w/ a stress fracture I had on my tibia, it’s about a 4 - 6 week recovery. Not suggesting you train through it and race, or not train and not race…just my experience. Good luck w/ your Marathon.
I had this last year. I had attributed it to tight laces also. I ended up switching out my laces for elastic laces, and that helped it go down. I also did some icing and took it easy for a week to help it go down. If it is tight laces for you too, it’s most likely inflammation in the tendon that runs to your big toe, which goes right over that bump in your foot. Ice and rest are probably the best solutions for bringing that down. As for taking it easy these next two weeks… you’re probably not going to lose much of what you’ve gained over the past months of training in two weeks, you’re supposed to be tapering anyway. If you want to raise your heartrate and not aggravate your foot, hit the pool or bike or something else just to remind your cardiovascular system what it needs to do come race day.
I had something similar a while back, I just changed the way my shoes were laced in that shoe, basically skipped most of the eyes in the center. I was able to keep on running, pain went away pretty quickly and now I’m back to lacing normally…
It might be a bruised or inflamed tendon. I had it happen on the top of my foot when I laced my Garmin pod too tight. I moved the pod and took some advil when I ran to help keep the inflammation down. Change your lacing pattern or try different shoes. Rest it as much as possible by aqua jogging these last 2 weeks. Good luck.
If you are certain it is EHL tendonitis (and you have eliminated the common tight shoe laces, rest, ice, etc.), then a well timed corticosteroid injection a bit before your marathon might not be a bad idea and can definitely help/salvage your race. Of course, the hands on exam prior to that with imaging as appropriate will be helpful as well Have a great NYC mary.
Have a great NYC mary.