Frozen soup, Horse feet and Hokas: 

The ongoing saga of my sore foot

Since the Imerys trail marathon in May 2014, I have periodically suffered from extreme pain in my right foot. I cancelled several races last year and had to abandon my fledgling Ultra running career. No Race to the Stones; no R.A.T Plague. Although I did manage to complete the Dartmoor Discovery Ultra [50km] in June, despite the last 10km being complete agony, so I am officially an 'Ultra Runner', and have a very nice medal and T-Shirt to prove it. Anyway,  I digress. Back to my sore foot.

Since May I have seen sports therapists, GP's, Chiropodists, Podiatrists, been poked, prodded and had both an X-Ray and ultra sound scan. I have messed about by putting new insoles and extra padding in my shoes. I self diagnosed from Google, read books, read blogs and even stopped running for a few weeks towards the end of last year! Nothing was found and nothing seemed to work. I was given false hope by the negative results of the x-rays and ultra sound, I had scaled back my running and all was OK. I started increasing my running again, and the pain returned.

I was becoming disheartened, but still determined to get this sorted. I could run for a short while[3+ hrs], then it would hurt. Should I only run short distances? The horror!! The scans say there is nothing wrong, so why the pain?

Then it was recommended, by the podiatrist I had been seeing, that I should see another podiatrist, Dr. Simon Spooner . So on Valentines Day morning, 2015, I went to see Simon. He really should change his profile picture. Anyway, I started by explaining the history of my foot. He listened intently. He nodded. He asked questions. When I said I had had x-ray and ultrasound scans and there was nothing wrong, he got angry. There is obviously an injury, he said, whether the technology picked it up or not, or my foot wouldn't hurt. Pain is your bodies way of saying 'there is something wrong, just stop it, now'. Which makes sense. But why? He examined my foot. Prodded my foot. Videod my foot. Even made me run on a treadmill. Explained without an MRI, he couldn't be sure, and even then, it may not be clear. And then he told me, in his opinion, what was wrong. He seemed to know what he was talking about, as he had name dropped his qualifications and the athletes / teams he had worked with, including the Exeter Chiefs [Premiership rugby union team, to those who don't know].

I have odd feet. I know that. But I didn't realise how odd. My toes curl up and don't touch the ground. This causes the tightening of tendons & muscles and undue stress on the ball of my foot. Or something like that. Simon used long words and I tried to keep up. Swelling. Fluid build up. Over use. Tight muscles. 2nd Metatarsal stress syndrome. I'm sure he mentioned 'equine' at some point. Do I have horses feet? The biomechanics of my feet mean they do not strike the ground as 'normal' feet do. This causes huge amounts of stress on my foot. At one point he said I may need to stop running for up to 12 weeks. If I was 18yrs old, it would be more like 6wks, he said, but I'm not 18yrs old. I'm 45yrs old. I must have nearly started to cry, as he said "don't worry, I haven't told you NOT to run yet, have I?" Phew. That was close. We talked about my race schedule, and mention of the Bodmin Bar8 Ultra in March, didn't get the reception I had hoped. I'm quite intuitive, and sensed he didn't think this was a good idea. I asked him if he thought I shouldn't do it. He said he was neither my coach, my mentor nor my Mother, so it wasn't up to him. I asked him if as a clinician, what his advice would be, and said don't do it. So I said I wouldn't do it, and we shook on it. Very firm handshake he has. This agreement on my behalf seemed to gain me some brownie points. 

So what were we going to do then? A treatment plan was needed. I would agree not to run for 6wks. That was a decision that was hard to take, but one that was well received. Now we are getting somewhere. In return I would get some custom, hand made orthotics, which were knocked up there and then. Very skillfully cobbled together by someone who knows what they are doing. I was to wear these in all my shoes from now on, to rebalance my feet. I was also to do some foot rolling with an iced tin {simply put a tin of 'whatever' in the freezer}, take a course of anti inflammatories for few weeks, and quite possibly the best advice I have received from a practitioner: buy some Hokas. I like this man. Apparently running in these would [or should, we hoped] alleviate much of my discomfort. After my rest, of course.

It seems then, that a solution to my foot pain may have been found. It took an experienced & trained pair of hands and eyes to get to this point, following several false dawns, not to mention an over reliance on technology. That's not really being fair to technology, as there may have been something wrong, such as a stress fracture or a neuroma, which needed ruling out. My Ultra running career may not be over after all. I will re start running in April, which gives me 16wks to train for the Mud Crew 100km R.A.T Plague, in Cornwall. Plenty of time. If training is going well {in my new Hokas!}, I really want to do Dave Urwin's inaugural 50km Ultra in Somerset. But I'm sorry Dave, I wont be able to commit until May /June time. Hope there is a place left for me.

And if all doesn't go well? I will just have to get really good at 26.2 miles and be happy with that!