Strava Feed

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Offa's Dyke Run - things learnt Lesson 1 - Feet

After running an average of 36 miles and climbing over 6000' a day for 5 days along Offa's Dyke with 15 others I have learnt some valuable lessons that some other might find useful if contemplating a similar journey.

Lesson 1 - feet

The thing that most people suffered with was their feet and were forced to pull out of contemplating the full challenge as a result. The sort of things that caused problems were blisters, toe nails and sore soles.  Blisters were the the biggest problem and the best solution is actually prevention. So how do you prevent blisters:

Conditioning is useful if you can. Getting used to being on your feet and to them to being hot and sweaty for up to 10 hours.
Getting your feet used to your shoes and making sure they are comfortable and well fitting for the terrain you are going across.  Some people used fell shoes when possibly road shoes may have been more comfortable. 
Treating potential pressure points on feet before they turn into blisters by using things like compeed.

Some people also suffered from sore feet as a result of the 10 hours of pounding they received each day. I used highly cushioned Hoka trail shoes (Mufate Speeds) and in fact I had two pairs of exactly the same shoes that I rotated. 

I think the fact that my feet stayed in tact was down to luck and due to my having used the Hokas for over a year and making sure that I had just been on a week long walking holiday which had hardened the feet.

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