My 2/7/10 run and weird toe issue.

I had such an amazing run last night! I ran for about an hour in Jeff's neighborhood and around Silver Lake. It was one of those runs where I enjoy it so much that I grin while I'm running and even hold my arms out and do "airplane" while I run down the hills. I LOVE running late at night. I loved the rain on my face.

I am not sure of the actual mileage. My Garmin was not taking a charge yesterday for some dumb reason... I'm not happy about it. I'm thinking about re-running it when I can get my Garmin charged so that I can report accurately. Regardless, the run felt great and I worked hard. Lungs felt great; huffy and puffy, but not painful, and my back, feet, ankles, and knees were stellar! They didn't even stiffen up when they cooled down when I got home. I like these new runners. I'm using my green Smart Feet in them.

There is something I should report. I am not sure when it started but I think it was very late summer-early fall when I started having some really weird nerve damage signs in my right great toe. When I extend that foot and point that toe, it sends an electric shock-like, burning, shooting pain along the inside of that toe, from the top down to the distal end of the first large joint. It is ridiculous-painful but also causes a superficial numbness in the area. At first, the numbness would eventually fade, but well after the pain had subsided (which generally takes 3-10 minutes). Now, however, it is always numb in that area. The pain is only triggered by that positioning as described above. When the pain is triggered, it does make the numbness more pronounced.

So what is there that I can do about this? Rest and Prednisone and possibly a Cortisone or some other injection to the site is my best semi-educated guess. LOL About 10 years ago, I had similar symptoms, but on the top of my other foot. I had had no injury and I was not a runner at the time. It was totally random. My doctor offered no explanation, told me to stay off of the foot for awhile, (walking triggered the pain/numbness, so I was off it anyway) and she gave me Lidocaine patches to apply to the area. They did very little to help the pain. The symptoms lasted about 6 weeks and then disappeared. About 5 years ago I was working with a guy who had similar symptoms in his ankle after a skiing trip. His problem was unmanageable at work, and had to take something like 6 months off work while he laid on the couch on pain pills and Prednisone. Luckily, my pain is only triggered by something that I can manage to avoid doing... but still... WTF?