I will spare you the photographic evidence

because this is a PG-13 kind of blog, and I'm not saying it rivals the black toe of death, but I have an enormous, jewel-toned, formerly fluid-filled, but now curiously flat pustule on the side of my left foot. The beast seems to reside partly under the calloused pad of the ball of my foot, but has escaped to find freedom near my instep. It is very strange. Very strange indeed. It doesn't hurt though, so I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

The Black Toe

Step 1: Toe nail mysteriously turns completely black
Step 2: Toe nail falls off
Step 3: I dunno, but I cannot wait to find out
I am currently approaching completion of Step 2. The Black Toe is soooooo much a cooler running battle wound than chafing.

For anyone wondering

I'll just tell you that Gatorade comes in but two flavors: lemon-lime (nee - original) and about eight colors of dog poop.

Crossing over to the dark side*

18. You have to go to a special kind of place in order to run 18.











*credit: Erin Flood

You're never too old

From: http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news?slug=britmarathon030508&prov=reuters&type=lgns

Already Britain’s oldest employee, 101-year-old Buster Martin now aims to become the world’s oldest marathon runner by completing the London Marathon and celebrating with a pint of beer and a cigarette.


Sprightly and bearded, he completed a half marathon at the weekend in five hours 13 minutes. The former Army physical training instructor works three days a week for a London plumbing firm and says he has trained for the April 13th race in his spare time.

“I’ve said I’ll attempt it,” he told Reuters by telephone from his workplace at Pimlico Plumbers. “I haven’t said I’ll complete it. If I do make it, all the better. I hadn’t thought of doing it before but someone asked me and the money goes to charity so why not?”

His sponsorship money will go to the Rhys Daniels Trust, which provides temporary accommodation for families of patients in specialist children’s hospitals.

Martin, who had 17 children and returned to work at the age of 99 saying he was bored after two years of retirement, would beat the previous record for world’s oldest marathon runner by eight years.

“If I finish, I’ll do what I always do and have a pint and a fag,” he said. “People ask what is my secret but I haven’t got one. They say fags and booze are bad for you—but I’m still here, aren’t I?”

Gak

This week has been very lame for running. I felt better than usual after the long run on Sunday but since then, the running has been very sloggy, like running through Gak. Don't act like you don't know what Gak is. I've used up my wiggle week visiting Oregon, so I'll be doing my first 16 this weekend. If you already did yours, wow. Way to go. Probably you're the only one, Michelle. So you should be totally ready to accompany me this weekend for our running tour of New York bridges. Right? Right? Excellent. And then be ready for $6 beers.