Anyone had a blackthorn foot injury?

Last Thursday evening I ran through some undergrowth at the edge of a bridleway to give a wide berth to a walker when I felt a pain like a nail had gone into my foot, which stopped me dead - so distracting I even forgot to stop my garmin! The offending thorn had penetrated so far through the sole of my shoe and into my foot that I had to wrench the shoe off with both hands to get it off, almost as if it had been nailed on.

With no option but to run home the next 2.5M miles, I was half expecting to get home with a shoe full of blood. Bizarrely, the run wasn't that painful, there was no blood and barely even a puncture mark. However, two hours on it hurt like hell and I couldn't move either of the two small toes on that foot without excruciating pain and slightly worrying is that the tendons above each metatarsal are also very tender to the touch. It swelled up massively, to the point I couldn't even get a shoes on the next day and my foot looked like how I imagine Johnny Vegas's foot does!

I'm taking antibiotics on the advice of my GP, but am still convinced it's not actually infected, but even though it's getting better each day, four days on it's still a bit swollen and only today have I been able to properly walk on it.

A cautionary tale for anyone who runs in shoes without a rock plate perhaps, but, although I've had small thorns and stones stuck in my shoe before, nothing like this in 18 years of running off-road!

Here's the offending article!



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