“In life as in dance: Grace glides on blistered feet” -Alice Abrams

When I was in the Army we used to do these things called road marches. These were not your typical frolicking along, singing cadences, strolling through the park marches. The longest one we did was around 20-25 miles...with a backpack weighing around 40-50lbs, a weapon in your arms, and combat boots...not hiking boots, not running shoes, not grandma's slippers....combat boots. They sucked. The backpack and weapon weren't too bad....the boots were painful. When we first started doing them in basic training I always wondered why we had to stop along the march and change our socks. No matter how long the march was, we had to get in the practice of changing our socks. Then, after returning from a march that wasn't too long, I realized the importance of good feet care. For as long as I live, I'm confident that I will never forget the image that I saw that day in our barracks. A buddy of mine walked past my rack (bed) and I just happened to glance down at the floor to see that he was leaving a trail as he walked....a trail of bloody footprints. Yep, each step he took left a bloody image of the bottoms of his feet on the linoleum floor of our barracks. His feet were in bad shape because he didn't take care of himself. I'll never forget it...and because of that, I'll never forget about the importance of taking care of your feet.

Unfortunately, I was blessed with really soft feet....so I get blisters very easily. In fact, the bottoms of my pinky toes typically go from blister to callus and back to blister. It makes long runs interesting, but I'm learning to deal with it.

Socks, shoes, ointments are critical.

My favorite socks so far are the Nike Zoom Tab Non-Cushioned Low Cut (http://store.nike.com/index.jsp?country=US&lang_locale=en_US&l=shop,pdp,ctr-inline/cid-1/pid-207376#l=shop,pdp,ctr-inline/cid-1/pid-179715/pgid-179714)

I'm sure I can find something better, but these are what I'm currently using for long runs. I wear a pair of Addidas coolmax socks for short runs.

My current shoes are New Balance 1063. I also have a pair of specially made orthotics that I wear due to flat feet, a previously broken 5th metatarsal, and a few other fun issues. I love New Balance running shoes...I wear a size 13 extra wide and it seems that NB has the most options in my size. They also seem to last a long time.



Here's a glimpse at my current strategy for keeping my feet in decent shape:

Before Run: I will usually cover my pinky toes and any callused area in Aquaphor. If I have a really painful blister I will also wrap the toe in Moleskin. I'll finish up by rolling a drying agent over the bottoms and tops of my feet. The drying agent helps keep my feet from getting too wet, which can lead to additional blisters or continued irritation of the existing blisters. It's also helps my feet stay smelling so fresh and so clean...clean.

After Run: After I shower I rub Urea Cream on my damaged toes followed by more drying agent. I will usually do this once more before bed.

The Urea Cream and drying agent are prescription only. The Aquaphor and Moleskin can be found in lots of places. I've also substituted Vaseline for the Aquaphor.



So there's my remedy...what do you do?