Day 3: My Left Foot

Well, my worst fears from yesterday have come true. Although the blister on the bottom of my left foot has taken a break, the shin splint has gotten much worse. A combination of favoring that foot, a gradual uphill slope, and absolutely unwalkable roads sloping to the left for the first twenty miles have made my shin scream at me with pain for most of the day....

Then, something came over me at a village named ":Brutus" of all places on Earth. I had been dragging myself along on the gravel shoulder for 17 miles, barely going 2.5 mph instead of my expected 4 mph, when I decided to just stop bitching about the road and my leg. I told myself that I would just continue the best I could and let it go. Much to my surprise, 300 meters later, I arrived at Brutus where the State of Michigan had recently resurfaced the road and widened the shoulder, which was almost even with the rest of the road, and above all, it was almost flat. It took all of the pressure off of my left shin. It allowed me to finish 26.2 miles today, but my shin was so swollen I could see the bump through my walking tights. I'm icing it now and will continue to do so until the morning when I'll see what happens next. As far as I know, I'm walking 26.2 again starting at 5:30 a.m.

I'm going to walk with a lady named Louise and some of the staff reporters from the Petoskey News and Review after 9 a.m. so that should be fun. It will be a nice break from the lonely roads I've been on so far. As an added bonus, the last 16 miles will be on a paved, flat, even, smooth walking/biking trail between Petoskey and Charlevoix.

I'm going to put my right leg in the jacuzzi and leave my left leg out of the water with an ice pack tied around it. I know I'll look silly, but that is what my life has become these past few days......and I love it. I wouldn't have it any other way.