The bright spot indicates pain in the 2nd joint. My pain is under the 1st  metatarsophalangeal joint.

I developed a dull arthritic-type ache in the ball of my left foot just under the big toe joint earlier this week.  This weekend it got worse. I tried to run on it this morning and ended up having to turn around after going down the street. I’m able to walk on it but it’s quite painful. So, I started hobbling around like an old lady but now it’s giving me ankle pain because of the way I’m compensating. *sigh* This totally blows. I’ve been training for a half marathon and I’m supposed to run a 5K next weekend.

I looked up the symptoms and I think I’ve figured it out. I have metatarsalgia, which basically means “ball of the foot (metatarsa-) pain (-algia)”.  It looks like it’s caused by all the running I’ve been doing.  Running is a high-impact sport and the big toe usually bears most of the weight and also does the “push-off” phase of my run.  Great…just what I needed. This better be temporary cuz I’ve got a half marathon scheduled on Labor Day!  So, we’ll see if resting this week will do it any good. I’m crossing my fingers.