Pitfall

I’m not talking about the awesome old school Atari game where you jump over alligators, swing on ropes, and jump over quicksand. I’m talking about pitfalls, downtrodden moments, the dirty, too much information, very embarrassing, kind of gross moments.

There are pitfalls to running.  Every runner’s website has articles about the pitfalls. Like “Embarrassing Running Problems”

I have a few pitfalls going on. I’m working with sore feet as I had blisters last week and while they were healing one callus has now decided to crack and that hurts like hell. I’ve let them air out, I’ve soaked them in salted water to toughen them up, I’ve put Neosporin on the cracked part. They are fine when I am running. I put powder in my shoes, I have wick away socks, and my feet stay very dry. (It was my dress shoes for work that caused the initial blisters) It’s just that I’m paying for them now as I am wearing a different pair of dress shoes with black synthetic athletic dry socks.

Another reason for the hair cut last week was that the sweat occurring on my head was gross. It was clogging up my scalp and leading to a lot of breakouts on my scalp and around my hairline. It’s a horrible feeling and it makes me look like I’ve got a little problem with how much I scratch my head.

Lastly, the worst thing…is chafing. I’ve got all the items to help avoid it. Powders, Bodyglyde, Desitin. All of these things suck in one way or another. Either it’s not enough or it’s too much. When I’m running I can deal with the chafing, I can run through it. The painful part comes when taking a shower. Hot water on raw skin is just awful.  Also bleeding unexpectedly through clothes because of chaffed skin – not cool.

It’s not pretty but it’s honest. It takes time, learning how & why these things occur, and how to help them heal that helps in the long run.