I took 2 whole pictures!
Well. We got to the middle and it was great. I was a little tired, but feeling good. I planned to get on to the south end, have an energy drink and a snack and cruise back to the middle and see how I was feeling about finishing.
About 2 miles into the 5.5 miles to the south end, my knee started hurting. Matt walked backward so he could see how it was landing. I was twisting my foot on every single step. I could not stop! Ack. This was BEFORE the initial 11 miles.
Last Friday, I had gotten a blister on my heel and had taken out my arch supports thinking that was the issue. We hiked Saturday and it was fine. So I did not put them back in. Well, apparently I need that to make my foot land correctly. We stopped half a mile from the south end to mess with my boot. I ended up taking out the insoles and putting a pad under it and that actually worked! With my foot landing the right way again, we opted to head back toward the north end instead of finishing the whole trail, in case it started getting worse. We didn't want to be walking further from a vehicle!
About half a mile from the middle, Melissa declared herself done. Matt and I decided to keep going on to our car at the north end. Then we decided we should stop as well. At the middle, Melissa was so beat she did not want to drive right away. We took one look at her and went to the little store to get some sugar and a drink for her! That helped and I drove us back to our car so she could rest a few more minutes.
I realized at some point around this time that I had a new blister on my heel. In my nearly new Merrell boots. Grrrrr. So it was good we didn't keep going.
I am a bit bummed. I have walked that SO many times without any trouble. I will replace my arch supports and see if that was it. I had new ones last Friday and they were smaller than the boot, so I thought that was causing the rub. But then I got more blisters with no arch support, so I don't even know.
Bonus between-toe blister.
And I was wearing Injinji liner socks. Grrrr!
