World's largest blisters

OK, maybe not the WORLD's largest. But I've got what are certainly the largest blisters I've ever had. Ouch. My original shoes left me with black toes and a sore calf. And soreness all down my right leg. My new shoes corrected all three of those, but they left me with my arches falling. Last week I added my arch support insoles to the shoes on my short run and they were lovely, but about 4 miles into my run yesterday my right arch started hurting again, but it didn't feel like my arch was collapsing. My left arch joined it in complaining a couple of miles later. When I got home, I peeled off my socks and found HUGE blisters on the underside of my arch -- an inch and a half long and nearly an inch wide!! Today I have only mild soreness from the run, but I have to hobble to avoid hurting the blisters. Ugh.

One of the more remarkable things about yesterday's run is that I discovered it makes a MAJOR difference to run in 60s weather rather than 80s/90s weather. At 8 miles into the run, I had managed a 10-minute pace the whole way. It was less than 9 and a half over the first mile when I thought I'd been holding back, so that 10-minute pace was me holding WAY back. I finished the whole 14 miles in 2:26:43. The overall average pace was 10:22 (I'm sure you all are very excited by all these statistics); I lost a lot of momentum in the last four miles. The last mile in particular was awful -- it has a number of big uphills.

I did not have any of those fun intestinal problems I've encountered in the past. Mine have never been as bad as that LOVELY photo Sarah linked us to (gee, thanks) but I have had to make a pit stop on one of my at-home runs and I've had a few worrisome moments on others. I started counting (and cutting) calories this week, so my calorie intake the day before was under 1200. On the morning of the run I had a cereal bar before I went out, and at about mile 6 I switched from water to Powerade (which was gross, and in the end I'm not sure that the number of calories I succeeded in taking in was enough to make any difference -- it's only 50 calories per cup, and I had to follow each swig with a sip of water so my mouth wouldn't feel all syrupy, which meant I was getting more liquid than I wanted each time), so I wasn't running on an empty stomach, but I also wasn't running on a full system.

It's two weeks until my next long run. I thought I was going up by 2s now, but it turns out I only got that increment once -- now it's by 3s until I hit 26! So next time out I'm running 17 miles. In Maryland, too -- I'll have to figure out a route that won't kill me. I don't think Springdale even has 17 miles of road.