Originally posted on August 21, 2014, by cruisingrunner
This morning we were back at Port Maurelle, and I was determined not to let the spiders keep me from enjoying a good trail run. So, I left my radio and camera back at the boat to keep my hands free, and I searched the beach for a good stick. The first one I found was a good size, but it must have been a bit waterlogged, since it was much heavier than it looked. Then, after scanning about for another minute or so I found it. The perfect length, thickness, and weight to carry and wave about as I ran. The stick was to clear the path of spiderwebs before I ran into them with my face. So, yes, I ran today while carrying and waving a “get out of the way spiders” stick. I laughed at myself a bit and alternated between pretending to be a javelin thrower and pretending to be a tribal warrior. Fortunately, I only passed one guy on the path, and he was cracking coconuts and wasn’t much interested in my spider clearing, javelin throwing, tribal warrior self. Since I was self-conscious, I felt the irrational need to explain why I was running around with a big stick, so I told him it was “to clear the spider webs.” After the fact, I wondered if that made me seem even more ridiculous. If he cared either way, he didn’t let on.
I carried a big stick, but I also ran lightly. Running lightly had nothing to do the spiders and more to do with the pain in my right foot. Flash back to just before we left home in early 2012… I started having numbness at the base of my middle toe on my right foot during my runs. It would come and go, but eventually the numbness turned to dull pain then to a sharper pain, which had me stop running altogether. I was devastated that during my last month at home I would miss my last chances of running on my beloved strand (the path along the beach). Once we got to Mexico and I started running on sand it seemed to heal, and I haven’t felt the numbness or the pain since. Scratch that. I HAVE felt numbness when I ride the standup paddle board, but that’s in both feet and I didn’t actually think it was related. At this point, I’m not sure, because it’s a very similar sensation. Fast forward to now, and I’ve been feeling the numbness in my right foot again for some time. I haven’t written about it, because I was trying to pretend it wasn’t there. Luckily, there has been no pain yet, and I was hoping that my new shoes would help out a bit. So far, they have helped, and the numbness has subsided. However, today it was back. So, I ran slow and light, and I’m trying not to be devastated over it. I will go easy and for now so that at least it doesn’t get any worse, and the next time we have internet I’ll actually have to get around to self-diagnosing this issue, since the ignore method doesn’t really seem to be working.
-D.
Gresham Family Exodus 