The Agony of De Feet

Two weeks ago, I made an attempt to run 13.1 miles as a trial.  I wanted to see if I would die.  Dying in front of about 500 people would be mega embarrassing.  Dying alone on a county road in rural Illinois seems like a better situation.  So I set out to run to the YMCA and back from my house.

Everything was going along swimmingly!  I was booking right along at a snail's pace of 5.5 miles an hour.  I was listening to my music, loving the crisp fall morning, watching deer in a field, and thinking to myself I can actually do this!  My Runkeeper program on my phone was letting me know when I was hitting milestones along my trek.  They actually seemed to be flying by.  And I wasn't getting bored.  Which is huge.  Boredom is the biggest obstacle I think I face.  I don't like feeling like a rat on a wheel (which is what happens at the Y) and I like having stuff to look at.

I made it to the turnaround point, the YMCA never looked so good.  I was just now at this point starting to feel the lead forming in the legs.  That wasn't too bad, I was surprised.  I was almost at 7 miles and I still felt like I had just started running.  I made it all the way home without a leg or ankle shattering event.

When I got back to the house, I took off my right shoe and all I wanted was to stretch out the toes.  My Nike running shoes have a very roomy toe box without being a size too large, but these piggies really needed to breathe.  I walked around on bare feet for awhile after that.  Then shooting pain that orginated from the vicinity of my ankle right up the leg was excruciating.  What the hell was that about?!?  I didn't roll my ankle, twist it, hit any rock off kilter or slam my heel down hard on one either.  Words like "stress fracture" were being bandied about.  Oh hell no!  That's just what I wanted, to screw up my feet BEFORE the half-marathon.  Only idiots do that.

The next day the pain in the right foot was worse.  There was no swelling, no bruising, no nothing on the oustide of my foot.  And the pain was only bad when I was standing on it.  So like any American athlete, I shrugged it off.  And did nothing for about a week.  It eventually subsided and I still have absolutely no idea what caused the pain.  I suppose I could have bruised something deep within my foot.  I have a short race coming before the big one, and I plan on wrapping that foot just to be safe.  And this race of a measly 3.75 miles will let me know if the foot is up for the feat (pun intended),

I've also found that toe nails are a bitch.  I know it's gross and disgusting and even I debated even talking about it.  But since only 3 whole people (one being my mom) read this I thought I'd throw it out there.  Did you know that some marathoners actually pay to have their toe nails REMOVED?  Yeah, like how you'd de-claw a cat.  Uh, no thanks.  I will just keep them trimmed.  I don't want to have to withdraw from any race because one toe nail cut into another toe and it got all gnarly and I couldn't walk.  And that sounds dangerously close to something that might actually happen to me.  I haven't had any just decide to fall off either. 

I currently have some amazing, stupendous socks.  I would divulge the name of these little wonders, but until they pay me to say the magic words I'll keep the secret.  They keep my feet nice & dry.  And my running shoes breathe so well that my feet are actually happy while I am pounding the pavement.  And keeping my feet cool is a major key to my success. 

So keeping the feet happy is now very high on my pre-run checklist. If your feet aren't feeling it, why bother right?  The Big Hills & Hollows Half Marathon is just a week away.  I'm ready.  I kinda can't wait for it to be over so I can write about something else.

Happy Trails and I will write all about my pre-half marathon week.