My first day of training, MY FIRST DAY, I had a problem.  I could tell when I felt the actual weave of the socks under my feet (sports socks, made for athletes).  This happened to me during the Knoxville triathlon.  I remember how painful it was to take every step.  I considered crawling for the "run" portion of the race. After that race I ended up with big, fat, painful blisters right on the balls of my feet.  Walking the next day was definitely an issue. This can't happen again, not ON MY FIRST DAY of training.  How would there be a second day? I'm on a time crunch here!  I changed my socks, changed my sneakers and bought something called liquid skin.  It stinks but it provided a barrier between my feet and my sneakers.  It was pretty effective because my blisters healed quickly and I haven't gotten them back.  I just wish that I put some between my toes.  Guess where I got blisters on my long training day?

And people wonder why I hate running.

OK, so I did it again.  I am a bit impulsive sometimes.  I really am. I was scrolling through facebook when I saw an ad for a half marathon.  Now if you've read ANYTHING in my blog you would know that I HATE running.  I HATE! HATE! HATE! running, and I’m not even supposed to run after back surgery.  But THIS half has a really cool medal with a pirate scull on it. (I’ll include a picture.)  I really WANT that medal, so I signed up.  I wouldn't have signed up if it was a traditional half marathon, but it is a “do it yourself” half marathon.  You register, they send you a bib and the medal. You do the miles and then log into the website with your times.  I can walk the whole thing and nobody will be giving me poor, sorry looks as the last struggling athlete.  The catch is that I have to do the event by July 31^st.  The 31^st is a Thursday.  I have plans on the 27^th so I really need to do this thing by July 26^th.  I saw the ad on the 1^st.  That gives me about 3 ½ weeks to train, and I’m starting from couch potato status.  Yeah I’m a little crazy.  I’ll let you know how it turns out, and NO I won’t wear the medal until AFTER I complete the 13.1 miles.