Ugly toes.

I don't feel much like a pretty pink princess these days. This is mostly due to the fact that I should no longer wear sandals - especially my hot pink sandals - because I might offend people with my calloused, blistered, ugly toes. I guess pounding out 30 miles a week is bound to do some damage to my ten toes, but I guess I didn’t realize just how much this would suck. It hurts to go barefoot — let alone to cram my toes into work-appropriate shoes. I don’t know, maybe no one really looks that closely at my toes and sandals would be a safe bet, but I just don’t want to chance it. Because, unless the person noticing the mess on my feet is also a distance runner, they might think I’ve always been this way. And I just don’t want to give off the false perception that these wounds aren’t self-inflicted.

Speaking of self-inflicted wounds, the throbbing pain in my left shin is enough to make me hobble around the office like I’m 80. Cubeville just isn’t what it used to be when I could meander about visiting with co-workers, eating snack in the break room and maybe even getting some work done — without limping. It will all be worth it though, I keep telling myself. Crossing the finish line in the big race will be enough to melt away the agony on my feet and the pain in my shin, but what if my blisters get worse and my toenails turn black and fall of, which is actually a very common phenomenon in distance running. Who knew? Maybe I should have looked into all of this further before jumping in with both pretty feet.