31 Mar - 3 Mile Easy run & visit to the podiatrist

I finished my night shift this morning and had a 1/2 hr kip before I was off to get my feet checked out.  He seemed to give me a thorough checkout including using this  TOG Gaitscan system .  The good news is it doesn't look like I've got Morton's Neuroma and that it's probably metarsalgia caused by my gait and incorrect advice on running shoes.  Turns out that even though I'd had my gait checked out on a treadmill they'd got it wrong and that I don't have a neutral gait but actually overpronate, so without the correct support, all the forces have been forced onto the metatarsal area rather than being more spread out across the whole of the base of the foot.  If I'd been wearing slightly different shoes I probably wouldn't have been having the pain.  So my options are to change shoes or continue with the current shoes but with orthotic support (ranging from £25 to £200.  Whichever way I go, the problem I'm faced with is that it can often take quite a few weeks to wear in orthotics and shoes, til I get used to the change, starting at 30 minutes a day and working up the time spent wearing them.  Unfortunately I've now only got 3 weeks to go before the London Marathon.  On the plus side, I'm off work for the next 2 weeks, so can wear whatever foot wear I like.  But the reality is that I'm currently in pain running anyway so I can't see there is anything to lose in going ahead with it now. I've decided to go  ahead with the simpler (and cheaper) orthotics, but next time I need new trainers, will probably buy shoes for overpronators.


As today's run was only a 3 miler, I gave the orthotics their first try out.  They felt a bit weird when I first used them, particularly the right foot, but as I continued they actually became quite comfortable which I wasn't expecting.  Unfortunately tomorrow's run is a 20 miler, and both the podiatrist and I had decided it would be better not to use them for what could be a 3-4 hour run on just the second day of wearing them and to just use the padding I had previously used.  But after todays run I am very tempted to try them because they really were very comfortable.  I'll have to mull it over tonight and make a decision in the morning.