9.08.2007

Beauty Feet

Call me lucky or blessed or a genetic anomaly, but I have really nice feet. Yes, I know, runners don't have nice feet, but damn it, my feet are down-right pretty--you know, for being feet. All my toes point in the right direction, there's no gunk under my toe nails, and I haven't had a blister since 2005. If my feet were a dog, they would probably be some hand-fed Maltese that is always carried. Yeah, they are friggin prima donnas, but I do count myself as fortunate, especially considering the foot trauma people like Nancy have gone/continue to go through.

Enter the marathon.

Since this is MY FIRST MARATHON EVER, my beauty feet are doing things they've never done before. This week they'll be pushing 30 miles of running. This is uncharted torture for them.

At first I got the usual drying out of the feet. No biggie there. Everytime I've trained for a race the bottom of my feet dry out and peel. The only difference now is that it's happening on an almost weekly basis.

But in the past two weeks, now that the weekly mileage is getting higher, I've noticed the development of hard patches on the bottom of my feet...wait...those look like...CALLUSES! What the hell? Where did those come from?! I've never had calluses before: should I be worried? Will it impact my running? Do I have to get new shoes? (Yes, I too feel like this is wussy and whiney, but gosh darn these feet are pretty and I want to keep them that way.)

After some brief research I found that I should not be freaked out because 1) calluses are common for marathoners, 2) I only have the beginnings of calluses, and 3) I can easily treat them with moisturizer. Whew. So now my morning routine involves slathering on some heavy-duty moisterizer on my feet right before I put on my socks. I also take as many opportunities as possible to wear sneakers and have basically given up wearing sandals.

So far, the treatment has been a success: the calluses have gone away and my feet are back to pristine condition. Let's see what happens to them after tomorrow's 18 mile run.

4 comments:

Marcy said...

ROFLMAO!! Dude, you know you have to submit to the TRUE test. Take a pic and post up the pretty feet for all to look at and critique. If you go there you are a brave, brave man. I have yet to see any pretty man feet LOL

Thanks for stopping by ;-)

Anonymous said...

You are darn lucky! I think I used to have pretty feet but they bit the dust years ago after many long runs. Keep sharing the tips - maybe I can still revive mine.

Moon said...

I am so jealous of your pretty feet :(

Nancy said...

I am extremely jealous. My feet are total bastards that seem to never be satisfied. You will likely not be seeing pictures...:)