Holy aching feet!

This was a weekend of walking.  Saturday......a whopping 18.5 miles.  Now, after my blisters last weekend, I was a little gun shy.  But they really had healed nicely, so in my ignorance, I decided that they were gone for good.  A little Glide (like vaseline to keep things from rubbing) all over my feet, two extra pairs of socks and I was ready to roll.  First pit stop = blisters.  Ach!  I had only gone 3 miles, for crying out loud, 15+ more to go.  This was not looking good.

Owlen the Goddess.......notice her halo?

Enter my hero Owlen.  Now Owlen is something of a goddess to me now.  She is a nurse at Children's hospital.  She has crewed for the 3 day twice (in blister care, I might add) and this is her 2nd year walking.  I had my fanny pack loaded with bandaids, mole skin, tape, etc.  But Owlen, with her halo glowing so bright I had to wear shades, is packing a drug store in her fanny pack.  Alcohol wipes to clean the area, some ointment that is basically like super glue for feet to help everything stick and restrict movement, some cool gel things (technical I know) that felt fabulous and cool on my blisters, mole skin, scissors (see what I mean about the drug store??) some wrapping tape and voila!  I am dressed and ready to party.  Oh, but wait, while we are here, let me do your left foot too (the one that had the blood blisters last week).  So she worked her mojo on that foot too.  Clean socks on and off I went. 

This is about the time it started to rain.  Then it rained ALL Day.  No sightings of the Blue Angels to keep us going.  The cloud cover was too low, so they had to fly low over the water.  For the people on the log booms, like my husband Terry (slacker!) I am sure it was fabulous.  Really, I am just jealous.  Drinking on a boat, watching hydro races and the blue Angels may be just a wee bit more fun than walking 18 miles.

Now, I want anyone reading this to think about 18 miles.  It is only 13 miles from my house to Ballard.  Ballard, for crying out loud.  It is FAR.  We started out on 145th and Bothell Way and walked to Sand Point Way along the water, picked up the Burke Gilman Trail, past Mathews Beach (nice park and beach, I want to go back!) through University Village (I want to go back and shop) where we had the fanicest training walk bathrooms EVER, up the hill through Ravenna, (holy cow some nice houses!) up Roosevelt, past North Seattle Community College, up to 145th and all the way back to Bothell Way.  Aye karumbah!

But, NO BLISTERS!  When I got home (exhausted) and took off the bandaid packs, no blisters.  Yes!

This is what 52 looks like after 18.5 miles

Sunday's walk was scheduled to be 12.5 miles.  I had an open house to hold from 1-4 so I knew I wouldn't be able to walk that far.  Terry met me at the McDonald's to drop my car so that I could break away and jet home to shower and get to work.

Neither of us were motivated to walk today.  It was pouring down rain.  After walking in the rain yesterday, it wasn't too exciting to imagine day 2 in the rain.  But we got our butts up and off we went.  Owlen met me there a little early to dress my feet again.  What a kind woman!  Everyone's but was dragging today after yesterday's very long day.  This is what we look like when we head out walking.  We are not fashion statements, that is for sure!

We all just kind of wanted to get it over with :-)  So off we started, my blisters feeling ok, but after mile 6 I was really hurting.  A new spot was hurting....the outside of my right foot.  All I can think is that all of the mole skin padding maybe pushed my foot more to the right.  Man, it was like someone was stabbing me with a knife.  I walked about another mile and then decided to bail out and go to my car.  We were within a mile of it anyway and I was in a lot of pain.  I came home, took a 20 minute bath to soak my poor feet and off to work I went.

Next weekend there is no training walk and the weekend after that is Courtney's wedding.  I am hoping that will be enough time for my feet to heal.  I can take shorter walks and get my shoes more broken in .  Keeping my fingers crossed.  I want to walk every single mile of this 60 mile journey!

Just as a final thought for today: in our meeting place this morning, there was a young couple with a one year old.  Our training group is hard to miss, 15-20 people, dressed in lots of pink, stretching and chatting.  We were all making goo-goo eyes at the baby and the husband started chatting with Tath.  He asked what group we were and what we were training for.  With tears in his eyes, he told her that he lost his mother 2 years ago to breast cancer.  It is a reminder of why we do this.  We have to stop this stupid disease.  Oh, and he said he thinks he will walk next year.  It brings it all back to center.