Domestically Challenged: Sandal Toe

When we were in undergrad, my younger sister, Mary, and I lived together. During this time, we decided to run our first half-marathon and would train for it religiously. One night, before one of our long runs, Mary took her boyfriend (now husband) to Medieval Times. They had such a good time that they decided to prolong the night by walking home along the water. This was probably a 12-16K walk and Mary was wearing very girly shoes. So girly in fact, that the next day, when we were suiting up for our run, we discovered she had extremely painful blood blisters. These blisters were so excruciating that she could not put on one of her running shoes. Undeterred, my resourceful and creative sister slipped on her Merrel sandal and we were out the door for our 16K run. The shoe/sandal combo worked out surprisingly well. Mary was only phased once, when she tripped and went sprawling in Toronto's trendiest fashion district at the very beginning of the run. But Mary pressed on. After all, she was hardcore.

Since the run, I've used the story to speak to Mary's dedication. I even told it at her wedding and we coined the term "sandal toe" to refer to the event. Mary has also been known to ask Running Room staff which sandal they recommend for long distance running. We thought that the event was unique and that no one else had ever been forced to wear a sandal to run long distance. That was, until the Alisha's "5" Kaye Trail Run in Sudbury. Mary ran this race in August and when she was going through the pictures online, she came across this: