My toe, the fourth on the left foot to be precise, is better. It still looks strange, and feels numb, but always has; a physiotherapist was once lost for words at my curious feet, when I took off my shoes and socks to show him. I have run twice since Hastings, over short distances, but without pain. I have had a rather unsuccessful telephone consultation with the doctor which ended, predictably, in his admitting that a telephone diagnosis was not possible, and a face-to-face consultation with a kind nurse who did not, thankfully, forbid me for running. I see the doctor for something more definitive next Tuesday.
I also bought new running shoes, the first for two years. In the picture, the new ones are the pristine pair on the left, and are, shoe fetishists will recognise, a pair of Brooks Addiction 8s. The other two pairs, Brooks Addiction 7s, were both bought about the same time, in the days when I could run at work and kept a pair at work and a pair at home. They have served well, and are remarkably unworn. In them I have run at least four and possibly five marathons, along with lesser races and the necessary training.
I have two runs to report: on Tuesday I ran up Seaford Head on the South Barn route, then down into the Cuckmere valley and back up Seaford Head again, and on Thursday I ran a short way along the front.
Tuesday
Time: 59:10
Distance: 5.56
Pace: 10:38
Thursday
Time: 32:49
Distance: 3.28
Pace: 10:00
