July 16th, 2006
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Wither, Blister, Burn & Peel
The running/bicycle combination has again caused trouble, although this time with far more negative side effects. Last night I went back to Kawasaki to see my good friend Sei, and we met up at the timeless izakaya Yamakashi. The customers were many, the staff cheery, and the food was as usual, excellent. However, after having more than our share of drinks, we proceeded to phase two of the night– the requisite karaoke highlighted by the Righteous Brothers.
Kawasaki station is a good twenty minutes or more walk from Kawasaki, so my plan was to run to Hacchounawate station and take the Keikyu line to Kawasaki. But, Sei in his eternal wisdom stated that if one is going to run to Hacchou, one should run all the way to Kawasaki. So, that’s what we did, giddy as schoolboys, ambling along and belting out 80s radio hits all the way. He rode his bicycle, I ran. The only problem is that when I left the house for work that day, I didn’t anticipate running, and matched my shoes to my shirt and wore my geta (heavy, platformed wooden sandals). Since running in geta is a sure fire way to break a strap or an ankle, I thought it best to remove them and run barefoot.
Hey, I used to run all over Amber Meadows barefoot when I was a kid. Our forefathers ran barefoot all over the wild, how bad could fifteen minutes uneven asphalt be?
Bad.
Since I was a little tipsy I ran on just the balls of my feet, to minimize impact to my knees (I guess). But what this did is build up a ton of huge blisters hella fast, blisters which hurt so much I could hardly walk after twenty minutes. I thought I could pussyfoot around and it would be okay, but they just ended up hurting more and more. I broke one scrambling to get onto the last Toyoko line headed for Shibuya, and the protective fluid in the blister got all over my sandals and the floor.
The worst was yet to come, however, because after I tried riding my bicycle home, I realized that just peddling on the heels and arches of my feet wasn’t feasible for those nasty hills between Nakameguro and Shibuya. In fact, having to stop at traffic lights on them pushed me over the edge. My balance was already tenuous because I was going slow, and I didn’t want to make the blisters to make contact with the ground. But I had to support my weight and slid off the bike and right onto the largest sore on the ball of my right foot. It broke and blood started pouring everywhere, on my sole, on my sandal, on the bike. So I had no choice but to take a taxi. I very painfully tethered my bicycle to the nearest railing, right at the intersection, and waved a car down. Because of the construction on Yamate-dori, it took about twice as long as it should, and ended up costing twenty-five dollars to get to my home. I’m really wishing I had crutches now.
Anyway, I took a bath, some aspirin, and went to bed. Today the bleeding has stopped, but it still looks like there is a lot of blood pooled up under the skin. I thought about taking pictures to document, like the way my shoulder gets all chewed up after omikoshi, but I figure that wouldn’t really benefit anyone. You don’t need to see it and I won’t soon forget this pain. So much for getting around today. I have no idea how I’m going to get to work tomorrow. My left foot is a lot better, so I guess I’ll favor that and limp on it for a couple days. ::sigh::
As my dad would say, “Well I hope you’ve learned your lesson.” Yeah, I’ve learned my lesson: “Don’t be a fuggin’ idiot, Prefontaine!“
