All Kinds of Blistered Feet

Last night I got home from the Badwater Ultramarathon. This 135-mile road race takes runners from Death Valley to the Mt. Whitney Portal at the southeastern end of California’s Sierra’s. We were treated to the beauty of the desert, especially at night. The heat you ask? The highest I heard mentioned was 123F. Of course that’s air temperature. The road, where the runners are, can get anywhere from 40 to 70 degrees hotter. I saw someone with an iron skillet sitting in the sun—waiting to fry an egg.
     Since my life revolves around feet, what did I see? Let me describe what I saw and patched. Virtually none of the 85 starters had feet untouched from trauma and blisters. The most common was toe blisters. These were most often at the cuticle of the toenail from pressure pushing the toenail back into the cuticle. In many of these, the blister lifts up the nail off the nailbed. Second most common were blisters on the heels and the balls of the feet. And finally, many had blisters extending between the toes. Toes, far and away, took the most beating.
     The largest was one from the base of the little toe down underneath a callus on the ball of the foot, and across the mid-foot to the other side of the foot. I could see fluid moving under the loose skin.
     Some had blood in the blister—evidence of trauma from pounding or pressure. These are particularly difficult to manage. The general rule is not to pop a blister if there is blood inside because it opens up the circularity system to possible infection. But, the runners want to continue, so you pop the blister, patch it carefully, and give them special instruction of its care.
     I patched quite a few feet and Gillian of Zombierunner.com, patched a lot too. In the coming posts, I’ll talk about some of these blisters, how to best avoid them, and how to patch them.
     As a side note, take a moment and check out my new website, FixingYourFeet.com and read about the new 4th edition of my book, titled, what else, Fixing Your Feet. If you don’t have it and you are an athlete, you need it. If you have an earlier edition, it’s time to upgrade to get all the new information and tips. After all, it’s important to keep our feet happy.