I really have never given my feet much thought until recently.    I never gave them much thought, because I have bad feet.    How can I have bad feet?   Well first of all, I am all of 5′ 2″ and I wear a size 8. Not a petite foot for someone my size.   Then there is the fact that I have dry feet.   Not your normal dry feet, but the overly dry cracked kind of feet that you get with eczema.   Top that off with the fact that my Big Toe isn’t my biggest toe and you’ve got the perfect storm for a foot that is destined not to shine.

Now I think about my feet.   I think about them a lot.   Instead of the occasional pedicure with a friend, I consider that an important part of my training.    Yes, it is a luxury but for someone with lovely feet like me,  it really is a necessity.   How can I do any of the events that I want to do if my feet aren’t ready too?   In between pedicures, I also make sure take care of them as well.   Not ignore the dry cracked toes because when you are asking so much of your feet, you want Happy Feet.

Now having the second toe bigger than the big toe has never really been a problem for me, other than being a little embarrassed about it.    But in researching why I might be having discomfort (and in discomfort, I mean pain that caused me to stop at mile 6 yesterday to massage my foot for a minute) in that foot at the base of my toes and ball of my foot as I’m upping my millage, I found that it actually has a name.  Morton’s toe or Royal Toe.   Ipersonally  think I will go with the Royal Toe because I always thought I belonged in Windsor’s Castle but I digress.

Quote from Wikeipedia – “the most common symptom experienced due to Morton’s toe is callusing and /or discomfort of the ball of the foot at the base of the second toe. The first metatarsal head would normally bear the majority of a person’s body weight during the propulsive phases of gait, but because the second metatarsal head is farthest forward, the force is transferred there.”

Ding, Ding, Ding, we have a winner!   Ok, this really isn’t good news but maybe this can help.   It was suggested to me that my gait might be off and we could work on correcting it.   Do I have a solution?    No, not yet but I’m working on it.   I will find a way to make this work.   I’ve come to far in this to let a little thing like a toe bring me down:)