The BioMethod Health and Fitness

Went to the gym today to run five miles, injured toe and all. Although I had no expectations, I was concerned that running might make things worse. Sometimes I think the anticipation of the pain is worse than the actual pain, liking getting shots.

Getting ready

I taped my injured pinky toe to its nearest and only neighbor, carefully put on my sock and worked on my shoe. I had to adjust the shoe so that it didn’t put too much pressure on the toe.

A quick jog through the living room revealed a decent fit with minor discomfort. I popped some standard pain meds, ate a banana, downed an 8 oz Gatorade and headed out the door.

Running With Care

Started my run with a slow walk and some testing of the foot situation. Walking, it turns out, is more painful than running. So, I bumped the machine to 6 mph (10min mile) and headed off. Shear pain on occasional missteps caused me to adjust my style to favor the inner part of my foot.

I didn’t like 6 mph so I moved to 6.6 but that was worse. I found my happy place at 6.4 with a decent pace and tolerable pain while focusing on how my foot was landing. Any misstep sent shooting pains, like lightning made of glass shards, straight into my toe, ankle and lower leg.

Dumb & Numb

After two miles a numbing feeling started to replace the pain. After four miles my toe and part of my foot was numb. I am gambling that this will be my experience on race day which will allow me to run the full 13.1 miles without constant nagging pain.

One thing that might be different on race day is the crowd and potentially uneven surfaces. both of those factors could have an unexpected impact.

Finish

I managed to finish in 46.33 minutes which is pretty good considering the circumstances. Looks like I will be running in the PF Chang’s half marathon on Sunday.