Feet

Let's talk about feet for a few minutes.  Runners have ugly feet. There, I said it.

As a girl who grew up in Florida and now lives in la-la land, I've seen plenty of feet in sandals and flip flops. Of the feet I've seen, runners have the worst. (Yeah, if you wore open toe shoes around me, I checked out your feet.) For a sport that spends all of its time on their feet, we really don't take that great care of our feet. You'd think our feet would be pampered and cared for daily. But I guess tough feet are resilient feet.

In the world of ultra running, I am incredibly green. I've only been doing this for two years (this July 20!!!), I haven't run 100k or 100 miles and I've never, ever lost a toe nail. (And I just jinxed myself didn't I?) Plenty of blisters, discoloration, and bruised feet; but all my toe nails are the originals. Why don't we take better care of our feet?

I know many runners never take a pumice stone to their feet or get pedicures. Just build callus upon callus.  Toughly removing toenails as casually as most people would trim their nails. Toughening up their feet for the races ahead. And then on the flip side I have a running friend who makes time to get pedicures as often as she can (ok, she's going to kill me, but mainly in the spring or summer. Open shoe season of course!) and I'm so jealous of how cute her toes look. I walk the middle grey area. A pumice is my friend, my toes are usually naked but if I need to go somewhere special in open toe shoes, I'll slap on some polish. 

Are you a tough guy or are pedicures your friend? What's your worst foot story?  Best foot advice?