pain in foot

Question
Hi there, how are you?  I hope you're well.

I ran a marathon about a year ago and have been running since.  Nothing major, mostly just for fun and to stay in shape.  As of Monday, though, after doing a muscle sculpt class (which I've been doing twice a week for a few months) I've been experiencing pain in a line across the top of my left foot (on the side of the smallest three toes).  It's not intense--mostly just present when I run and/or when I flex my foot upwards.  

I iced it last night after thinking it was better and trying to run--I lasted about three minutes before realizing it was a bad idea.

My plan is to rest it and ice it for a while, but I wanted to ask you if you know if this might be anything I'd need to do anything else for.

I'm scheduled for a half marathon next weekend and am hoping to still do it if the pain is gone--but don't want to do anything to cause more damage.

Do you have any thoughts as to what this might be, how to treat it and/or how it might be caused?

Thanks so much!

Lisa

Answer
Dear Lisa,

You need to have a medical evaluation since you should rule out the possibility of a stress fracture (although I would never try to diagnose over the internet and besides I'm not a physician). Your first aid measures are temporary and without an evaluation you are prone to increasing the damage if your condition is only acute at present. You do not want to make your condition chronic so get it checked out.

In the meantime, do some non-impact aerobic exercise (biking, swimming, aquajogging) to maintain your fitness while you rehab. If you do so you will not lose your conditioning.

Don't worry, there will always be another race. Don't do the half marathon as you have reported you are still in pain. Pain is the body's signal that something is wrong. Listen and respond to these signals.

I hope I have been of some assistance.

Dr. Christopher Rampacek