Traumatic Mallet Toe

So my toe is broken.

As things go, it's a small fracture and a small problem. BUT, concerned that there was a good chance of a fracture I had an x-ray done yesterday which confirmed an avulsion fracture of the distal phalanx of the first toe. That is medical talk for a chip of bone pulled off the base of the last toe bone by the tendon attached there that pulls the toe up. It's pretty clearly seen on the x-ray of my toe above (that chunk of bone pulled back at the top).

I think I just kissed any running goodbye for the next 2-4 months. Of course, this occurred the day after I laboriously entered a daily running schedule into my Outlook calendar extending to the Portland Marathon on October 5th. I'm kinda pissed that I have this good endurance base and was primed to start training to run a fast marathon and now I'm just going to have to not run at all, possibly even beyond the marathon date.

Life goes on, but this abrupt halt to the kind of regular exercise (and stress-release) I've been doing for the past 5+ years is going to be hard to adjust to.

I'll probably see a sports specialist this week, and I'll have a clearer idea about my limits at that visit.