There are times when an athlete may switch from wearing shoes to sandals. This happened in the 2019 Six Days in the Dome when runners were trying to get as many miles as possible in six days. A runner was having issues with his shoes. His feet were hurting and he decided to try wearing sandals.
The design of his sandals was a strap running from between the large and second toe where it then split to attach to either side of the sandal mid-foot—just like on flip-flops.
After making the switch, he ran for a while, but the straps began irritating the top and sides of his feet. He came to see me and asked for help. There are three images that show the solution I made for him.
Image #1: In the first image I had him put the sandals on his feet and marked the edges of the straps over the top and sides of his toes. Then I applied Compound Tincture of Benzoin to the area where the straps would run, between the toes, and on the bottom of his feet.
I then took a two-inch strip of kinesiology tape and cut it into a Y. The full two-inch portion was anchored to the bottom of each foot and run up between the toes. From there it was split and run over the benzoined skin to the top and then sides of each foot. Once the tape was applied, I rubbed it with the tape’s paper backing to activate the adhesive.
Image #2: This image shows the taped foot. You can also see some dark spots on the edges of the tape. I had applied a strip of benzoin to the edges of the tape to help anchor them to the skin.
Image #3: This image shows both feet with the tape applied. It was a simple enough job to do and helped the runner. There are always times when patching feet or finding a solution to a problem that you have to think outside the box. This was one of those times.
A similar tape job can be made for sandal straps that go across the forefoot or around the back of the feet. Anything can be taped to provide protection from rubbing.
