Fellowship of the Morton's Toe

Nyal

Chapter Presidents
May 13, 2010
291
2
16
Greetings fellow victims of throwback genetics. If you are one of ten people in this world, your feet have retained an earlier version of the human foot and your 1st metatarsal is shorter than the 2nd. Although one may be tempted to think that a leftover foot thumb would be cool to have, that same one is very wrong.

Morton's Toe presents unique challenges to the barefoot runner, and those challenges are, well, challenging. Here is the synopsis of your special features, O bearer of recurrent genetics.

1. 1st metatarsal is shortened to the extent that the big toe appears to be shorter than the 2nd toe.

2. The 1st metatarsal is supposed to be the primary support during running and walking, but our reduced metty forces the 2nd metty to assume the load. This is the cause of a myriad of problems.

What are symptoms of MT while transitioning to BFR?

1. Callouses forming under the 2nd metty head.

2. Pain or tendernous localized in the same region.

3. A feeling of pressure or that there is a big fat rock in your foot, again under the 2nd metty head.

4. A strong tendency to injure or strain the 2nd through 5th metties, including stress fractures and TOFP in that part of the foot.

5. A tendency for you peroneal tendons on the inside ankles to get tedonitis (strains) or tendonosis (tears).

6. Asphalt owns your ass.

Symptoms can range from very mild to quite severe, but there are treatments and methods. Here are my suggestions.

1. Learn your limits. Do NOT push through any pain or any discomfort. This condition makes you MORE likely to be injured during the transition than our 'normal' BF siblings. You WILL NOT get adequate warning before a fracture or strain. Prevention is the only medicine.

2. Learn your surface limits. As horrible as it may sound, some surfaces may be beyond you. Asphalt, concrete, or other very smooth flat places may not be possible truly barefoot. What's worse, you won't learn your limits in this regard until you have experimented for a very long time. (Remember, asphalt and concrete are not natural surfaces and require 'unnatural' skills or abilities) Refer to number 1 as you try things out.

3. Make a barefoot orthotic or orthotics if you need. Making a Morton's Toe patch will fix many, many problems in form, prevent MT flare ups, and most importantly prevent injuries, bad injuries.

4. Relaxing is KEY. Even more than the Norms, we have to run will limp noodle legs. We must also fully load our heels and allow our tendons to bounce.

5. Form may help, specifically higher turnover and refraining from rolling back forward to the forefoot. However, it is important to stick with what feels best. THERE IS NO CORRECT ANSWER.

Good luck and welcome to the club,

Nyal Davidsson

President, CEO, Pretty Boy

FMT, AS.

Members:

Nyal the Danko Worshipper

T. J. the Great

C. Beth Run the Flexible

Silly C the Confident

Eric the Red

Norm Deplume the Not a Guy

Vibramchic the Lilly Footed

Lownox the Whiner

Danjo the Whipper of Snapper

Wayne the Cantankerous Texan

Sherry Lewisdatter

Paleo the Primitivist

Hrefna of Abban

Evadenyaw the Kiwi

Gkikas the Galloping Greek

Lomad the Nomad

Dave the Flatlander
 
I LOVE it!  Totally cracks me

I LOVE it! Totally cracks me up, especially since I can relate (to some of it). I will be your first member, since we all know, I'm Morton's very own daughter.

I will sticky this for prosperity sake, Prez Nyal. Can you take some pictures of how to make a metty orthotic, we can share with everyone else--might be very helpful to some? And what does, FMT, AS mean exactly?
 
I will post a running list in

I will post a running list in the OP of members so anyone can chime in in this thread and I will measure their first metty and sign them in.

I think that is a great idea, Teej. I have about worn the old orthotic out and will need to make a new one. How about a step by step photo essay?

Fellowship of the Morton's Toe, Aksje Selskap (norsk for Incorporated. FMT, AS is located in Norway for tax purposes)
 
Awesome. Count me in. My

Awesome. Count me in. My Morton's Toe is not too bad. But I was having VERY annoying callous issues. Thankfully that seems to be resolving itself as the plantar skin becomes more uniformly thick on my foot pad.
 
Form may help? While form

Form may help? While form might not always solve the problem, especially in the case of actual physical features causing the problem, form can always at least make it better.

And I think I heard from TJ sometime that you can have Morton's even if your second toe is shorter than your big toe. How can you tell if your second metetarsal is longer?

Also, your statistics are confusing. I'm assuming you mean that one in every ten people has morton's toe, but it sounds like your saying that only 10 people have it, and you might be one of them.
 
Ha, Low!  Hysterical!Danjo,

Ha, Low! Hysterical!

Danjo, you can have Morton's Toe and not have Morton's Neuroma of vice versa. It's difficult to tell if you have MT just by looking. How you can tell if you have it is to sit with one leg crossed over the other and pull down on the two first toes. Look and feel where the knuckle joints (first ones closest to your long bones, the metatarsals) are to see if the second one is longer than the first one. If it is, then you most likely have MT.

Nyal, I see. So it's important to have our credentials all laid out...and for tax purposes to boot! Hee.
 
Yes, form MAY help. It really

Yes, form MAY help. It really depends on the severity of the condition. There comes a point when the mechanics do not allow a correction as simple as form.
 
  I have great form and no it

I have great form and no it doesn't help! What works for me is not running on pavement. I run on gravel and run on trails in the mountains, this allows me to still run barefoot 100% without the annoyance of MT. If I do run pavement which is rare now, I use vff treks. I don't seem to have a problem on that end. But, I have just been running all bare for whole spring and summer with exception of about 5 runs vff's on pavement. As you can see in my avatar gravel trails I run on are beautiful lol! ;)
 
All this time, I thought that

All this time, I thought that was asphalt, NR. Hee.
 
I am pretty sure that I have

I am pretty sure that I have Morton's Toe, and outside of the small callous forming, I haven't had any issues so far. I do pretty much all of my running on Sidewalks/Streets and normally completely bare. (Though about 1 in 5 I run in Huaraches or Amphibians)
 
Are those the Amphibian

Are those the Amphibian Sockwas, C-Dog?
 
Barefoot TJ wrote:All this

Barefoot TJ said:
All this time, I thought that was asphalt, NR. Hee.



Nope all gravel, I can see how you would think that though. You can't tell from the pic and the gravel was done up right too.
 
Isn't it strange about

Isn't it strange about asphalt? I think I need to do a study on asphalt and MT.
 
Barefoot TJ wrote:Are those

Barefoot TJ said:
Are those the Amphibian Sockwas, C-Dog?



Yeah, I have those, Invisible Shoes, and a pair of KSOs.

I hate the KSOs for running though. I do like them for weight lifting though :)

The Huaraches are still my fave. If I am not going barefoot, I usually go with those.
 
Nyal is going to make a

Nyal is going to make a step-by-step for how to make an orthotic, Amy. Welcome.

Nyal, are you able to run on trails and gravel much easier than asphalt...just like NR does? Or do those surfaces cause you problems with your MT too?
 
Ooh!  Ooh!  Let me join! Let

Ooh! Ooh! Let me join! Let me join!

Here is my application. Notice the longer 2nd metatarsal.

http://www.barefootrunners.org/build2/forum-topic/huarache-tie-job-lasts-80-miles



Honestly, I haven't had problems since the transition (1 year ago). Prior to starting BFR, I had lines of corns running down the balls of my feet between my 1st and 2nd toes and my 2nd and 3rd toes. At first, it felt like when I ran barefoot, I was running on glass. But blisters formed on top of the corns and the corns popped out with the blisters. After they healed, no problems.

I have a bit of a callus under my 2nd metatarsal on my right foot, but no biggie.
 
What is a corn exactly?

What is a corn exactly?
 
Gravel and trails are fine

Gravel and trails are fine and quite comfortable. Even very hard dirt or wet sand is fine. There is something evil about asphalt. Once, I perfected a form method that reduced the problem a great deal. It was not good for much though as it resulted in never engaging the tendon system and was exhausting and I think a contributing factor to my injury lately.