Thursday of last week I suffered my first injury while running barefoot. I was running around my college campus, was excited about the beautiful weather, and also felt good knowing that I only had three miles to run, and then an easy 7 on saturday (this was a recovery week for my marathon training). Unfortunately, other people thought the weather was nice and it seemed like everyone was walking around campus. I chose a different route today because my normal route had several broken beer bottles along the sidewalks during my last run (that's what I get for running by a bunch of frat houses). As I started to cross the busiest intersection on campus several people in front of me seemed confused about walking. They sort of stopped, started, moved to the side. I don't know what was going on. So I diverted my attention from my running, the ground, and looked up to make sure I didn't run into anyone. At this time, I felt my right foot hitting what felt to be a round metal object protruding from the street. I could tell my foot was cut and injured. Did I stop? Of course not. That would have been the logical thing to do. Instead i let myself think about all the comments going on in people's heads, "Look at that idiot running barefoot, of course he hurt his foot." I kept running for another minute, but then the pain became unbearable. I found a bench and sat down. I had a small cut on my foot, but I could tell that the impact was probably what caused the most damage. Unfortunately, I was on the other side of campus from where I needed to be. After resting several minutes the pain started to subside and I ran back across campus to the gym so that I could change. I was hesitant to call my wife, because I knew I was going to hear it for hurting myself. "Why don't you just wear shoes?" "If, i'd been wearing shoes I could have easily twisted or sprained my ankle." I tried looking for whatever it was that I hit but could not find anything. I learned the next day that several people had nearly injured themselves crossing that street and a couple of my friends had actually said "Someone could get seriously injured on that." As the night went on my foot started to swell and hurt. I elevated it, iced it, ibuprofened it, and laid around. The next morning I was scheduled to make a presentation. I took one step off of the bed and felt searing pain. I called off the presentation. Later that day I had an important interview and new I had to make it. The foot had started to feel better so I went, by the end of the tour after the interview I was really feeling it. I went home and did the same and stayed off the foot the rest of the day. Saturday, much of the same, only on it for about an hour because my wife and I were looking at a house. Sunday, the same. I also got some wrap on sunday and wrapped it for awhile. Today, I have to do things, so I have the foot wrapped. I won't be able to ice it until like 9:30 tonight. I am also getting very anxious to start training again. the marathon is in June and I am scheduled (and already registered) for a half marathon in two weeks. The pain is mainly on the top of my foot just behind the toes. It has started to bruise now and the bruise kind of looks like how it would look if you were wearing sandals and got bruised from the strap that goes beside the toes, only it is a lot thicker. When the swelling has been reduced, i am able to bend my toes almost fully. My question is, does anyone know what type of injury this might be? I was worried at first that I may have broken some bones, but I don't think this is so. I feel like I just hit something really hard. How long should I wait before I attempt to run again? When I do run again can I jump right back into my training program or do I have to step it down? What are some other ways that I can keep training with minimal impact on my foot. Any advice or encouragement is greatly appreciated.