Long Distance Runaround

Woah. That's scary about your foot-sized blister. I'm sorry you had such a rough and painful day. Take care of the foot!!!

That was a tough course. If you don't mind lots of downhill running, Boston is easier, and you'll probably have to hold back to run 8:00 pace once you get out of traffic there. If you're lucky you'll get a tailwind, which we definitely didn't have today.

I hope your blister gets better soon. I can't imagine how painful it must be. My little ones hurt a lot, and they're just lame ones. I'm sure it affected you even before you slowed down, and don't underestimate the power of tapering. You and Becky are both doing a lot, and this is the part of your training where you probably get the most worn down. Rest your foot, believe in yourself, and you'll be fine. Take care!

Sorry things didn't go so well, but hang in there. Like Alison said, believe in yourself and trust all the training you've done and you'll be fine! Take care of your blister first though - probably the best thing you can do right now. Blisters are just like injuries - you compensate for them and injure other things so be careful! (I learned that lesson the hard way when I first got orthotics in high school... )

Caitlin, what a fight! You finished. Moreover not fully knowing how much more pain you would have to deal with once the race was over. Well, no little feat. That seems just pretty damn tough, does it not?

Great thing about blisters is that they go away. They need lots of air so the skin can rebuild quickly. The hard thing is to figure out why you get them. And while it is commonly accepted that new shoes will give you blisters, with the materials and technolgy used today I don't think that should be the case any more. It's not like you are in the WWII armed forces and you have to break in your one-size-fits-all recycled leather amphibians. Also because it wasn't just one blister-point, by the end it was the whole foot (but that could also be because you started compensating your gait to avoid the pain.) Maybe it was not just the particular shoe model, but how you choose shoes with respect to the way you run. I think it would do no harm to go even further at the root of the problem.

As far as cover-ups go (not the solution but ok to avoid missing a race) I remember quite a while ago buying these really thick, very sticky, translucent, skin-like silicon pads made by dr. Scholls. They stuck so well I was even scared to take them off for fear the skin would come off. In the end they did the job of resisting sweat and foot motion. They (or similar products) must still be available.

Re. Negative entries: I have been training quite succesfully lately, feeling good, getting better. The week before my favourite point-to-point half-marathon (yesterday), my 3-year-old got chicken pox (his sister had it 2 weeks before). My wife was away all week on assignment so I was alone with the kids (with a babysitter to help some of the time)and - beyond all that you could possibly associate with managing a 3 and 5.5 year-old in the span of a day) I passed three sleepless (as in fall-asleep-wake-up-repeat cycle) nights at the peak of the outbreak because the itch made my 3-year-old insane and needy of soothing, comforting and presence. On Friday I had a fever (probably from exhaustion), my wife finally came back saturday, and sunday there was the race. I thought I was feeling ok (or was it that the Roma Ostia is my favourite half-marathon?) and decided to run the first 10k in under 4mins/km pace in progression, aiming for an ambitious negative split, when suddenly my left calf just went. I had started at the back (took almost four minutes to cross the start) so I had passed hundreds of people (there were over 6,000 running.) By 11K I had almost stopped and had difficulty walking. And then I figured I would be better off to make it to the finish as quickly as possible (funny idea in a race, no?) before other problems set in, like cold, total energy depletion and just being upset. So I found a way to run slowly, the objective being to limit the pain and avoid compensation damage. By the last kilometer it almost felt like the problem had gone away (which seemed almost miraculous and I finished in 1:46, more importantly where I could hook up with friends for a ride back home. As soon as I stopped my calf went literally kaboom, swelled like a chicken drumstick, and I had some serious problems walking. Moral of the story: even if you have been running for a long-time you can still overestimate your capabilities. If I had been realistic, after the chicken-pox wife-less week, I would have given-up the idea of racing and should have just enjoyed a nice sunday 21,097K run. But then again, humans unlike animals (so we think) are moved by passion and feeling which can make us forget (or ignore) our limits and pains in favour of the pursuit of our desires. This is why I want to understand just what it is that goes on when we run. At all levels. Because I love it. Alas, even when it hurts. Congratulations on your finish. I was really happy to make it back home myself. And maybe, sometimes, that is what running is: making it back home. Fortunately I also have a day off. Corrado.

Caitlin, I did really enjoy running with you. I hope the blisters feel better soon! And I hope you were able to eat something. DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED! There are a ton of variables that contributed to the lack of your "perfect" race plan. I'll be in touch.

I am so sorry about your blisters! I hope they're doing a lot better soon.

You are in great shape and I can't wait to read about your awesome race at Boston!