Stones in my shoes

Toughening up – physically and mentally – I realize, would do me some good. It would help me bull through more challenges.

Sometimes, though, accepting pain is stupid.

As I ran this morning I thought I felt a stone in my shoe. A tiny fleck of a stone, actually, but an irritant nonetheless.

At first I ignored it. Keep running. Don’t stop. Must not stop, I thought.

Why?

It wasn’t a race. Just doing a six-mile training run. Not really trying to maintain any particular pace. Just wanted to get in some miles, focus on my form and enjoy the early morning.

About three miles in I started to detect a hot spot, a precursor to a blister. Still, I kept going. Must keep going.

Wait a minute. Last year I developed some blisters on long runs. That sucked. So I stopped, sat on the curb and removed my shoe. Sure enough, I had some tiny, tiny rock in there.

I brushed it off, put my shoe back on and was on my way.

Ahhh. Relief. I couldn’t believe how much of a difference it made.

So, yes, sometimes it’s good to be tough and bull my way through challenges. But other times, obviously, the smart thing is to stop, deal with the underlying source of the pain and then move on.

I wonder if this applies to more than my running?