125: Reverse Turf Toe

Yesterday I spent part of the afternoon reenacting the World Cup with friends. We played football (that's soccer to you and me) on the grass, barefoot, using towels and a Nerf ball for goal posts. It was a blast... until I dove for a ball and fell down on my big toe, curled under my foot.

Ooowww! I rolled on the grass dramatically, holding my foot, and crying out "Mommy!" though laughter. I imagined the real pain would pass in a moment, I'd stand up and score another goal. I did stand up and we started the game again but the pain didn't really subside. You know where this is going.

This morning I got up at 6:30AM, made blueberry muffins, started the coffee, and got ready for our big 5 mile Murdick's Fudge race. My toe was still sore but I figured I'd run through it. My friends descended one by one and we piled into the car and drove to the neighboring town's elementary school to pick up our numbers.

There wasn't a gun, or D-tags to record our time, and there were under 300 people at the start. It reminded me of my first race in Bedford, back in November, the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. I started off strong, and pretty quickly jumped on the sidewalk to get ahead of the slow moving crowd. It was hot and the first mile was mostly flat and downhill; I wanted to take advantage of feeling strong.

Then suddenly, the dull strain in my toe began to demand my attention. A tight cramp began to crawl up my leg, attacking my calf muscle and ascending all the way to my thigh. It was crippling and alarming. I had to pull over and attempt a stretch. Could this be related to my strained toe? I felt scared; what's happening to me! I wasn't even sure what to stretch. Nothing made those muscles relax.

I took to the road again but couldn't do more than shuffle. By the end of the first mile, I was in agony. My leg felt like it was curling up. It was hot. I was actually limping even as I tried to walk a little bit and see if it would work itself out. I stretched again a few times. My friends eventually caught up to me and passed me - even the two pushing a baby stroller. There was a water station and I spoke to the volunteer there and she said to go back to the start, that they'd have medics there who were trained to deal with injuries.

I did as I was told because I didn't want to hurt myself any more and it seemed there was no point in just walking the rest of it - might as well turn back since I wasn't even half way through yet. I'm in this for the long haul and if I was about to do some long term damage, I'd better not.

When I got back to the start, there weren't any medical people waiting. The guy clocking the runners in by hand offered to use his megaphone to see if there were any doctors in the house. Slightly embarrassed to be taking him away from his clocking duties I declined and instead sat and waited for my friends to cross the finish line, rubbing my toe, and wondering what in the world I had done to myself.

When we got home, my friend Googled my symptoms but there wasn't anything describing the toe to calf/thigh link. We decided I had either a sprain, or Reverse Turf Toe. Who needs medial school, really, when you have the Internet? That said, I may go to the doctor when I get home to NY on Tuesday, just in case it's not Reverse Turf Toe, and is something that requires more than ice and elevation. Receiving an "incomplete" for today's race didn't feel good and I certainly don't want any more of that on my permanent record.