With the excitement of the Oscars, I was tempted to produce my own film for the Blogademy Awards. Imagine the tap running over the bathtub with what appears to be litres (or gallons) of blood flowing from it. Really, it’s just a lot of blood (but it did look like litres) from my running sock.
It all started last Sunday when I ran 13.5 miles. When I got back home and headed upstairs to stretch, Dave called, “Is that you bleeding all over the place?”
“What?” I asked. “No!” But, then, I realized what he meant and I slowly took off my socks. Oh, oh. There was just enough blood on my foot to raise concern but I couldn’t find where it was coming from. So, I shrugged it off.
On Monday night, I got home and discovered the same thing. Again, I couldn’t figure out where the origin was so, once again, I shrugged it off.
After Wednesday night’s tempo, I glanced at my foot as we walked into the rec. centre and yelled, “Yikes! Blood!” As you can see, the entire half of my Asics (new in January to train through the miles towards Boston) were covered.
“Do you have a blister?”
“No, I can’t figure out where it’s coming from. But it doesn’t hurt….” Yeah, I’m tough.
The following day, I spent a long time looking at my feet, under the toes, between the toes, anywhere I could to try to determine where this mess was coming from. Finally, I felt what seemed to be a tiny bit of open skin on the side of my second toe. My third nail, or what is left of it, somehow rubbed against it the wrong way. On every run since discovering it, I’ve taped Toe #2; problem solved.
My shoes, on the other hand, have not recovered. I washed them in cold water on Wednesday night (insoles removed), and let them air dry. As bad luck would have it, both shoes – especially my right – feel tighter; it appears that they shrunk.
What a nuisance! Seven weeks old and with only 250 miles, my shoes suddenly don’t fit. The next time I end up with a bloody foot, I’ll keep my shoes as they are; if nothing else, they’ll be a good story at the start line.