Here we go again

I have the goal of attempting walking the Camino again, this time in September 2011. I attempted in March 2010, made lots of rookie mistakes, and came back early. However, most people who have walked this trail simply state that they stopped only to continue at a later date. Maybe that is what I did.

I have been walking during the fall, mostly 5 miles in distance and twice I went 7 miles. I am still experimenting with different shoes, socks, tightness of laces, etc. Recently I purchased 1000 Mile Socks, which are only sold in Britain, and which guarantee no blisters for at least 1000 miles in these socks. For Christmas, I bought myself an expensive pair of hiking shoes and tried them out today for the first time. The shoes are a full size smaller than I usually wear so I am not sure if I picked up the wrong box at the store as I tried on many different pairs, or if these were the ones that fit best. Anyhow, today I walked 3.5 miles and at about the 2 mile mark, I could feel my baby toe rubbing against the shoe. Sure enough, when I got home, a big blister was on the top of my baby toe. Through all of the years that I used to run long distance, and more recently all of walking I have been doing, I have never had a blister on the top of a toe. I guess it is a sure sign that the toe was too cramped. Next time I am going to take the insert out to see if that makes any difference. If not, I have an expensive pair of bookends

Here are some pictures of me before I left today (it was a very cold -8C and windy); and there is a picture of my toe. (Click on pictures to make larger).

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