Feet

Feet will be a regular topic for chatting about over the next 12 weeks. Specifically the horror stories we've heard about feet. As an example, Katie had a friend walk the NZ Oxfam Trailwalker in March at Taupo, her description of the feet of her team sent shudders...to quote...
"...our mate got blisters that she didn't treat properly (she also used brand new socks on the day and that's the number one piece of advice, don't try anything new for the event). They got worse and she had to pull out at 50kms. My big toe nails have gone black and I'm likely to lose them. It also took me a week to be able to sleep without my feet hanging off the mattress (was even too sore to have the duvet touch them!).We did it in 30 hours. We had a 2 hour break for breakfast before the last leg and were basically granny stepping/shuffling to the finish line. We had to go straight to St Johns as one of us had poisoning from a blister that looked like a HUGE growth out the side of her ankle from a support brace, you could see the fluid wobble as she walked, the ambulance guys said it was by far the worse they saw out of the entire event...."

OK, get the picture...so we are stocking up on gear, specifically socks and soon blister tape, bandages. Here's a photo of my sock collection so far, as you can see there's nothing glamorous about them, comfort, protection being the priorities. This sure isn't going to be a fashion contest Skins, thermals, sweat and ugly socks. That will be our wardrobe for 30+ hours. And grimaces. And maybe some tears. And hopefully plenty of smiles.