Athlete’s Foot? Or Something Worse?

October 30, 2009 at 4:59 pm (What I See)

Temp: -16 C/ +3 F
Wind Chill: Same, Calm

Most folks at McMurdo work 10 hours a day and have one day off per week. The Shuttles drivers work 12 hour days, so we get 2 days off per week. Mine, for the moment, are Sundays and Thursdays, but we’ll change everything up in about 5 1/2 weeks and then I might have to go to working nights. Which I wouldn’t mind, except that I’ve seen my Shuttles friends who have transitioned to nights in recent days, and they look…older than they did. The sun is still shining at night, but it’s definitely colder, and the crazy seems to come out a little bit more.

Anyway, on Sunday, I hung out with This Guy. Super cool and positive force of a world traveler, and this is his third season on Ice. He’s a marathoner and our conversation went something like this…
Brody: I’m training for the Antarctic Marathon again. Do you like to run?
Me: Um, no.
Brody: Why not?
Me: Because it’s boring, sweaty and painful. And I can find a lot of other things to do with my time that are none of those things. Why would anyone want to run a marathon here?
Brody: Because it’s a challenge and you’re in a whole new place and you should try new things.
Me: Arrgh.

In the span of a few hours, when our only plan was for me to learn to play Cribbage, Brody and his Jedi Mind Control talked me into at least considering, if not outright doing the following things:

Agreeing to train for the Half Marathon, to take place to January;
Consider being a Winterover and staying for the full year; and
Eating Kiwis (the fruit, not the scientist) with the skin on.

The Kiwi was delicious. I am looking into whether there are even any positions open that I might be at all qualified for. For the 3 or 4 of you who would be upset about this, fear not…it’s a longshot and I’ll be seeking your thoughts about it and advice before signing any dotted lines. The process just has to start now if I’m even considering it. More on that later. Which brings me to the running…

I Hate. And Despise. Running. But Brody used the magical “trying new things” tactic. So, this week is my first week of training. Three runs in so far, 2.5 miles each, which took me about 30 minutes. Definitely not great, and I am decidedly NOT enjoying myself. But, I made a deal.

All of which is to say that there is something horrifying going on with my feet. It could be the communal showers, but I wear flip-flops. It could be the fact that my boots leak. It could be the aliens. Nevertheless, it is gross and foul and not good at all, and I don’t know what to do about it.