How SeneGence Shea Butter Cream saved my running

In December I ran the Rocket City Marathon. Or more precisely, I ran 22 miles of it. (For those who don’t know, this would have been my 8th or 9th marathon. I run a lot.) Between mile 21 and 22 the toes on my right foot started hurting. I thought I had a broken toe. That is the best way I can describe the pain. Every step felt like I was stepping on glass. Since the shoes I was wearing were rather new, I thought perhaps I had laced them too tightly. When I loosened the shoe, my foot started throbbing. That stopped me. I hobbled over to a policement who called for the SAG wagon.

Back at the hotel I wasn’t sure which toe was causing the pain. Though 2 toes were red and tender it wasn’t the shooting pain I would have expected from a broken bone. That afternoon we drove to Memphis for my husband’s company Christmas party. By the next morning I wasn’t sure there was any problem. I started second guessing myself. What happened to the pain?

I didn’t run much that next week, maybe 3-4 miles at a time, but the next time I got to 5 miles I felt some discomfort. Unfortunately, the pain came back in force the next time I got up to 7 miles. I finally went to the doctor.

Medical Opinion: (which you can skip if this is more than you want to know about my feet) The toenail on my second toe is split vertically due to a childhood injury. My second and third toes rub together. The rubbing causes a callous on my second toe that digs into the exposed nailbed. After running for a while this can feel like a jackhammer on the nail bed. Why has this never bothered me?

Well actually it has. I felt the discomfort in the latter miles of the Ironman I did in August. But I knew I was close to winning my age group so I ignored it. And then I guess it healed before I did much more long miles. I probably wasn’t getting regular pedicures during October / November so by December that callous was pretty tough.

The doctor’s advice: Keep the toes moisturized and put a cotton ball between them when I run. (He gave me some little foam pads but advised that cheaper cotton balls work just as well.) Actually this part was embarrassing since I knew he was looking at my horribly dry feet when he was saying this.

I used some hand lotion I had around but it didn’t do much for the now embarrassingly dry skin. I used my Shea Butter Body Cream on my feet during the summer to keep them sandal worthy but had got away from that during the winter. I admit I first thought the Shea Butter Body Cream was too expensive to use that much on my feet.  I don’t know what I was saving it for?

But I got over that and every day – sometimes twice a day – and always before I run – I slather on the Shea Butter Body Cream. And I am thrilled at how soft my feet are. Not to mention I’m running easily again.