Back on track by dontsurf

This isn't perhaps the worst injury in the world, and I'm sure it may be caused by my new socks or something - which was $14 well spent - but it hurts.

Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech may never come true in the sense he meant, but it's come true for my left foot. One side of my shiny white trainer is now a deep burgundy colour. I thought it was my toenail that had come a cropper, because when I took my shoe off after intervals on Wednesday my sock was soaked in blood. There was so much blood that it mixed up with the sweat on my feet, wicked out of my sock and onto the upper.

But the toenail was secure, as always, and trimmed just right (look after your feet and they'll look after you). Instead, much to my relief, I have a big bastard blister on the outside of my middle toe, which split open and bled out. It bled right through the sock, through the upper into and through the insole and wicked all down the outside of my left shoe mixed with sweat and rain.

Talk about battle scars. It didn't open up again today though, and it's not really painful until I start sweating in the foot area and slow down and the endorphins wear off - usually after about three miles.

I was just now coming back from a three mile loop into Kilbirnie, and running back around the bays I have to cross the road to run up the side of the cliff. It's actually a nice little training run at the end, looking for a sort of sprint finish, going slalom up a near-vertical cliff face (which they build houses on - I know), but today I fucked up. A woman with a dog was crossing at the same point as me, and the traffic was heavy.

Confused, I crossed at the same point as she did and didn't realise that I'd walked up too far so that I should have just kept going straight to get onto the path. But I decided to run around, crossed in front of her path, smiled at her, said thank you for letting me cross your path and then proceeded to run around the pavement until I realised two seconds later that she'd walked up the path and I was running along the pavement to... nowhere, because it stops after 50 metres.

Um.

Stop, swear, look up, she's walking up the path. Now I have to walk up the path just behind her, feeling like a tit that doesn't know where he's going, and worst of all, she looks behind her and smiles at me in a nervous way.

Feel like a stalker, or worse, stupid. Hang head in shame.

My toe hurts. :(