august 21
day 104
27 miles
total 2,744
today did not start well.
i awoke late
due to a magic phone that had decided to stop making sounds.
last night i had looked at the soles of my shoes to find the heels had worn thru the hard rubber ,
and the underneath rubber had melted away like butter.
time for new shoes.
then i discovered my new shoes;
same brand same model ;
had a toe rubber 1/2 inch longer on each side than the ones i have happily worn for 2400 out of 2700 miles.
i would have to cut that rubber to make my toe holes….
the other 300 miles had been in another pair with the same defect,
the edge of the rubber had scraped painfully on the toe and then the shoe’s insides had come out thru the hole.
thus the 300 mile lifespan.
well, i did have one other pair with an extra wide toe box.
maybe i could handle those,
since my little toes were no longer swollen to the size of my big toes….
no dice.
that pair had been lost somewhere in a crew exchange .
i found myself starting an hour late,
wearing shoes that are falling apart.
what followed was one of my strongest performances to date
i finished on time
with my daily quota
by bearing down and buying a minute or two every mile.
i had no choice
i have to perform every day
if i want to finish in time.
but the physical cost was high.
and not sustainable.
i have to figure out how to make this stupid phone work again.
and i have to come up with some shoes that will neither kill my toes
nor fall apart.
what a shame that narrative interferes with telling you about surprising idaho.
this is a truly amazing place.
suffice it to say,
traveling this road at foot speed has revealed marvels i never dreamed were there when i passed them at car speed in 2000.
and i can’t even see the mountains for the smoke!
having lucas and ellen along again made the day even better.
i wonder what solutions will come
to overcome these new obstacles.
and then what new challenges will spring up to replace them….
i thought this was supposed to be easy?
laz
Sent from my stubborn and uncooperative phone