On day 1 of 7 out on the trails, I should have known something bad was coming...I stepped on a thorn that went through my shoe and into my big toe! This happened around 7am on Sunday morning. Not a good sign. I let out a yelp, pulled it from my foot, and kept running...with the piece of evidence in my hand. I would wave it at each runner I came across as I finished the 5-mile loop. The picture at the left is the thorn in question. Pretty darn long and sharp! Fortunately, although it punctured my toe, it didn't go in too deep. I changed socks, put some antibiotic cream on the crime scene, and finished 30 miles before lunch. Over my standard lunch break, Sharon dug out what she thought was a tip of the thorn still stuck in my toe--I think it was just dried blood. Oh well. She disinfected the wound and slathered on more antibiotic. The toe hurt, but became numb as I ran. Ended up doing 27 more miles in the afternoon. Not a bad day of running, but a bad omen for the week.While I'm taking it easy the rest of this week, the Buffalo Trace 7-Day Stage Race is still going on and Tracy is doing a great job. Results are updated each day (some people still haven't sent me their miles, but most have).
I'm barefoot much of the time out there and I cringe when around those thorny trees. I figure if I step on one of those, whether in 5-Fingers or shoes, it will likely go through. I know a farmer in Kansas who gets tractor tires punctured by those things.
ReplyDeleteNot sure this is true, but I've heard that if you are going barefoot you react so quickly by feeling the initial touch of a thorn (or other nasty sharp object) that you pick up your foot faster and don't end up being cut. Sort of the same with minimalist shoes--you tend to run with a softer landing. I'm not going to experiment to find out if this is true! We should all try to have a softer and more reactive foot landing (like POSE and Chi Running teach).
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