It's All About the Feet

I think about my feet all of the time. I talk about them regularly with Laura, especially on our walks. I've even shown them when they get swollen up to my co-workers (they just nod and try to look sympathetic). It's just all about my feet these days! Laura and I get sore in our legs and our hips as we walk long distances, but it's our feet that we seem to need to deal with the most. There's the pain on the bottom of the feet, on the tops, at our ankles. Then, there are the blisters we get, mostly on our toes. I've just now confirmed that I must have a certain kind of insert to prevent the blisters I get on the sides of the balls of my feet. We analyze the various types of blister preventing lubricant--we prefer Tri-Glide but Body Glide is easier to pack in our non-fanny packs. (I tried the powder--messier than the others and didn't prevent blisters.) And we've tried out different varieties of socks. We both bought the same kind of single layered nylon socks, then I tried double layered (more comfy, but they stretch out and then fall down as I'm walking) and Laura checked out toe socks (but they gave her blisters). And of course you have read about my multiple shoe shopping failures. I'm on pair 5 & 6. #5 is a go! The jury is still out on #6. I'm going to give them one more try...

Laura and I both get stiffness and pain in the tops of our ankles. But I've been experiencing lingering swelling, though only only sometimes, and lingering ankle pain. I'd feel silly finding out later that there are things (such as exercises) that I could be doing that would eliminate the worst of the problems. I mean, I'm walking huge distances but even with all of the training, it's still going to be tough on my feet. There is going to be pain and swelling. But, I went ahead and made an appointment with San Diego's own McDreamy (i.e. Dr. Runco, the Ultra Marathon Running Chiropractor who owns San Diego Running Institute). Just to see if there's anything I'm doing wrong or need to do differently. I bought shoes at the store, so my first consultation is discounted and about the price of a treatment from my regular chiropractor. Who is great, by the way, but he's not an endurance athlete. So he just adjusts my feet and says, "Mine would be swollen, too, if I did all of that walking." Well, I'm just going to double check with Dr. Runco and see if he agrees.

We're a month away from the 3 day. It is FOUR weeks from this Friday. Can you believe it???

Slightly Foot Obsessed but Still Hanging in There...Jenn