The Pits of Being Poorly Shod.

Goooooood Morning Friends.

Well, it happened.  I had my first crap race.  Don't worry, this isn't one of those "oh, she is being to hard on herself posts."  This is more of a, "holy bananas my toe blew up!" post.

You see, salespeople are sneaky.  I came waltzing into a running store with one thing on my brain: Brooks Ravenna 2.  I left with a pair of asics, craptastic.  The first couple times I ran in them, the calf pain that I was experiencing went away.  However, I developed a blister on the middle toe of my right foot.  These shoes also made me run on my tippy toes, which made my coach VERY irritated.

Two days before the race the blister cracked, and bled, and what did I do? - superglued it back together.  Because really, superglue fixes everything - or so I thought. 

Race Day.  Warm up.  I get corrected no less than 10 times for running on my toes.  Damn shoes.  On your marks.  Get set. GO!!!  and we're off.  Mile 2, I finally pass the 16 year old kid in a pirate costume.  Mile 2.5, finally pass the 8 year old.  Mile 3.1, nearly choke on water (I really need to learn to run and grab and drink).  Mile 4, my toe explodes.  A blister had formed under the superglued blister, and it burst, and it bled, and it hurt.  Mile 5-6, ouch.  ouch.  ouch.  ouch.  get passed by an old dude.  ouch. ouch. ouch.

The upside to having this happen to me in a 10K was that I got the opportunity to learn from it.  It wasn't the marathon, or even the half.  I learned that when you know what you want, you shouldn't let anyone talk you into something else.  Go with your gut. Chances are, the person trying to change your mind doesn't have YOUR best interests at heart. 

Final time:  6.2 miles in 55:13.  Next race: Pendleton 15K... it's a doozy.

May your day be filled with happy feet and toes.

Andrea