Do you know what day today is? Do you?
Today is the day I realized that the 3-Day is going to chew me up and spit me out, and I am going to have to figure out how to get home from Boston with only bloody stumps left at the ends of my legs.
Do you remember how I was training? How I had plenty of time? How I was going to kick ass and take names and laugh in the face of those 60 miles? Ummm… do you remember what I was smoking when I said that, because I seem to be out…?
I’m a bit frustrated with myself, and my delicate toes.
I have great excuses. The endless days of rain, for one. The ongoing saga of Basementgate. I’ve been, um, tired. I’ve been busy.
Oh, did I say GREAT excuses? I meant to say STUPID excuses.
I’ve completely fallen off my training regime. I have less than two months to go, and I’m more or less starting over from scratch. Hmmmm, who can I blame for this turn of events? Let me think. Oh, that’s right. ME. I can blame me. My fault. And what fun is THAT? I blame myself all the time. I really wish I could blame someone else for this one. Like, maybe my Congressman. Yes. I shall write him immediately. “Due to your inability to stop the torrential rains and send me buckets of money so that I wouldn’t have to work, I was unable to walk very much this past month. Please fix it immediately or I shall be forced to vote for someone else next time, except whoops, I didn’t vote for you THIS time either. Oops, did I say that out loud?”
Ahem.
Anyway, if there’s anything that’s coming through to me LOUD AND CLEAR these days, it’s “If it’s important, shut up and do it.”
I’m not all that adroit at the shutting up part, but I used my amazing (and uncontrollable) verbal powers to give myself a pep talk. SELF! I announced. I can look at the situation at hand and I can be discouraged, or I can use it to motivate me to shut up and do it. So what’s it gonna be, Self? Sit around and bellyache about how I’m not ready? Or get out there and smell bad, er, train?
My walk partner is somewhat MIA at this point. The end of the school year swallowed her whole. I’m hoping that she’ll resurface soon, because otherwise I’ll have to hunt her down and kill her, and I’m just guessing that her family might object to that.
Anyway, I’ve been training in my sneakers, and decided to try out my Bite sandals for a change. I took the proper precautions (I thought); heading out in a new pair of shoes, you have to be careful of blisters. So I put plenty of cornstarch on my feet (listen to me, I’m 80 suddenly) (first I put cornstarch on my feet, then I put fresh plastic on all the furniture…) and WORE SOCKS.
With sandals.
I wore socks with sandals. And a giant red “L” on my forehead.
So. My feet were prepped. I donned my exercise wear, I slathered on the sunscreen, I filled up my water bottles, I found my MP3 player. I was ready to Get Back Into A Groove.
Now, you would THINK, what with all of my careful preparation, and the risking utter dorkitude to protect my feet and all, that I would’ve been okay. At least, that’s what I was thinking, because I’m sort of an idiot.
And I’ve read a million times that as soon as you feel “hot spots” on your feet (spots where blisters are brewing) that you need to stop and deal with them, applying moleskin or whatever to stave off the blisters. If I’d been out walking (or, indeed, if this hadn’t been the first pleasant day) in the last MONTH I suspect i may have been a bit more attentive to what was going on with my feet, a bit sooner.
But first there was the problem of trying to stay to the side streets. I have to walk along a main road for a bit, pretty much regardless of where I’m heading. And the side roads, they’re fine; but on the roads with more traffic, I have to deal with motorists veering off the road, blinded by the glare off of my lily-white thighs. Then I started wondering if it was really that, or if they were perhaps having seizures induced by the jiggling of the cellulite. It’s hard to know. Either way, it was kind of distracting.
Second, I’m still relatively new with portable music, and it’s possible that I need to sit down and make a special training mix. It’s a problem to be rocking out when a slower song comes up and busts your pace. Also I kept having to stop myself from singing along.
The end result was that I was about 7 miles out (and still a mile from home) when I realized that my feet–initially so comfy in my new sandals–were sliding backwards. I tried tightening the straps, which made my entire foot hurt. But the alternative was that the tops of my toes kept rubbing against the straps. I spent the last mile trying to keep my feet in the right place in the sandal footbeds, and not think about the fact that it was 85 degrees and my feet hurt and OH MY GOD I AM GOING TO DIE ON THE 3-DAY IF THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS ON A LITTLE TRAINING WALK. It’s a good thing I’m not prone to overreacting.
I came home and did the logical thing: I immediately took a picture of my feet. Do you see all of that extra room between my toes and the bumper? It’s because my heels are hanging off the back.
I dunno, I mean, they’re nice sandals and all, with a remarkably supportive footbed. But I may be too stupid to operate the straps. Next time I’m just going to wrap duct tape over the top of my feet and around under the sandals. That should take care of the slippage issue.
I took a picture of my bare feet, as well, but go ahead and thank me for not sharing it. I was going to label it either BLISTERMANIA or LOOK, I’M A MORON. But, you know, it’s all fun and games to be gross with words… when you start providing photographic evidence, someone loses an eye. Or something.
Anyway. I’ve spent some time pampering my beleaguered feet this evening. Tomorrow I’ll switch back to my sneakers for my walk.
Because yes, I will be walking again tomorrow, blisters and all. I did not ask you all for donation money so that I could end up in a medical tent on the event. That would be even lamer than what happened today. So. Onward! The blisters may have won the battle but they can’t win the war!
(They can’t, can they? How embarrassing would THAT be?)
Just a reminder: I still have special 3-Day themed t-shirts for sale in the store, with all proceeds being donated to the walk. You know you want one. Clicky, clicky. Do it for the blisters!
Somebody has cute feet, and it’s not me.
I’m just sayin’.
You wore socks with your sandals? You’ve been seeing the chiroquactor again haven’t you?
I don’t think those are sandals on your feet. They’re so big, they look like rafts. No wonder you got blisters. You’re not supposed to go running with rafts on your feet. ;-)
but…you’re pretty!
and ouch. that hurts.
good luck with the next two months, you can totally do it!
If it was me, my feet would be accompanied by everything below the waste aching. You rock…. and blister.
LOL at Marvo. I was thinking snow shoes. They do look, um, kinda big which I would think would add to some sort of discomfort. I would stick with sneakers. Any chance you could smoke some crack prior to the walk? That might help.
If you are going to go ahead and put on socks, not to sound too judgy here but I feel like I must try to save you from yourself, why not just put on sneakers instead of clown sandals? I’m sure when your feet aren’t hanging off the back they don’t look like clown sandals but I have to say, in that picture? Wocka wocka! Why with the sandals? Didn’t you learn anything at the chiropractor?
Put on sneakers! Do it for the children!
Mir…I love you, and I understand the sandal misadventure and won’t take the side of those lecturing you. I’m sure you learned about the sandals yesterday, just as I learned about the phrase “test strand” yesterday. The good news is I was offered a job as Ronald McDonald’s stunt double in upcoming commercials.
You’ve motivated me to start walking again, and hopefully in a year, I’ll be telling some folks my training for the three day mistakes. Peace.
Mir – a diehard lurker here… I did the 3day 60 mile walk a few years ago…without training AT. ALL. I can tell you all about it if you’d like to email me…
Mir, I am so proud of you for picking it up and getting on with it! You ROCK!!!
oh, and ow.
That big red L on your forehead…would that be your Scarlet Letter or your Red Badge of Courage?
OMG, those are clown-size sandals. You should loan them to Ei for her Ronald McDonald gig.
Wear sneakers!!! Those may be walking sandals, but they’re for walking around the mall (and Mickey D’s) not walking to the next county!
Are you listening? I’m telling your mom.
What would you tell Chickadee? Hmmmmm. Would it be something like I am proud of you for getting back on your training schedule, but letting your blisters heal before you go stomping around again might be a better plan.
I admit, my guy works as a field biologist and has been known to take off his boots and have blood soaked socks. But, the man is a red-headed Scot. He has actually done the Scot’s log throwing thing when at high altitude because there was a log RIGHT THERE. So, are you by any chance red-headed or a Scot?
linked here from Chris…
I supported a friend last year in the Boston 3-day, and she ended up with no blisters – it can be done! I admire you for trying, I’m waiting for my kiddos to be older (or, um, so I say).
We have the moldy downstairs problem here – water is gone but it got all the walls moldy, including in the children’s room. And as a bonus, 4/5 of the bridges in our town don’t work! If you’re in MA, enjoy the sun this weekend!
Sneakers are your friends! Nothing good can ever come from wearing socks with sandals. Let this be a lesson to you.
Oh, and YAY MIR!! You can do it!!
Couldn’t bring myself to click on the picture, but wishing you well on the walk. I walked two blocks today – that’s about my limit. (sheer laziness) You’ll do great!
Don’t beat yourself up for what you haven’t done. I’ve made that mistake plenty.
I wonder why the sandals slipped. Maybe the socks are too slick? Those wicking socks can wiggle!
There’s a bunch of women on my 3-Day team that wear the Keen sport sandals with wicking socks and they swear by them. Goofy looking maybe, but anybody who’s not actively walking those sixty miles and wants to point and laugh… well, I’m thinking a beyotch slap would be in order. I’d consider them myself since my tootsies love their air flow. I’ve already invested a gazillion dollars in running shoes, though, because my knees won the comfort smack-down and demanded max cushioning. These days I’m all about Wright socks and BlisterShield powder.
I also got behind on the training because of the f-ing rain. I did one 10 mile walk in the deluge back in mid-May just to show that I could, and pretty much never walked in the rain again.
The way I figure it, when you do the training walks, you also have a ton of other stuf you need to get done that day. Once the 3-Day rolls around, you have pretty much all day. If it takes 10 hours to walk the miles, so be it…