Outside foot/ankle pain

Question
I have been training for my first marathon which is now 2 weeks away.  A few days ago I noticed that my outer foot hurt just below my ankle.  During my long runs, I have noticed my feet hurting and assumed it was because I tied my shoes too tight.  My foot pain has been most noticeable first thing in the morning and when I press on it (feels like a bruise).  I have been taking ibuprofen before running, and sometimes during the day.  I started putting ice on it at night, too.  I am wondering what you think the problem might be, and what to do since my marathon is in 2 weeks (I have trained so long and hard!!)???

Answer
I can't diagnose injuries by email, or even in-person, as I'm not qualified to do that.  It could be a number of things, but there's nothing I would be able to pin-point.  A bad pair of shoes or misaligned foot landings due to natural biomechanics can cause a lot of issues as well for foot pain.  Also, some people are simply not the right build to run a marathon distance.  This has been a growing concern for fitness & sports performance trainers in recent times.  People with medium to light frames are ideally fine to run & finish a marathon, but people with larger frames tend to develop many joint, muscle, & bone issues because of the large amount of pounding in forces that the body takes by running so many miles in preparation for such races.  

I don't really know what to tell you here since you are 2 weeks away from the marathon itself.  I would start tapering off at this point in your mileage plan, mainly to help your body recover in time for it.  Most marathon plans I have seen have a tapering portion about 2-3 weeks from the race date.  As a general rule, they say if you can cover 20 miles in a long run, you should be able to have enough endurance in your body to finish the 26.2 distance.  If that is the case, I would certainly taper off in your mileage by 10-20% of your previous week's mileage.  If that doesn't fix anything, I would see a therapist or chiropractor, as they can usually see things that perhaps are mis-aligned and perhaps causing the pain in the first place.

I don't know what else to say, so if you have any other questions or information, just reply back with another question to me.  There is some other information that may be helpful, such as weekly mileage, frequency of running per week, and types of runs you have been doing.

Rick Karboviak