Yup...this'll happen.

When you insist on running sockless, you're going to find that your shoes will fit differently.  That slight rub you notice against your socks can, within a mile or so's time become a small saw against the skin of your feet.  I'm lucky that my feet bear very few of the scars that I've accrued over time.  Normally, the balls of my feet and my heels got it the worst, especially when I was racing in spikes.  Those can be hard to deal with because, of course, tightening your laces is a declining spiral (the more you tighten them, the more the shoe's upper stretches, necessitating more tightening, etc.), and petroleum jelly is only so useful, especially if it's raining.  After awhile, your skin just calluses enough that you don't have to worry about it.

Needless to say however, all those miles before that happens can have some not-so-fun moments.

Yesterday was one of those days.

You might have seen me mention my new shoes on my other blog (if you didn't, here's the post).  One thing I didn't mention was that I when I tried them on, I noticed some slight rubbing on my right middle toe (yay for feet that don't fit the same...).  I've felt much worse and still laced up, so I kind of brushed it off.  I made it through my first few runs with no problems and only minor irritation of that spot.  A couple minutes into my run, though, I felt it a little worse than usual.  I got off the treadmill, tightened the toe end of the laces, and went back to running with no problems.

When I finished running, though, guess what I saw?



Oops.  Yes, that's blood--my blood.

Upon further inspection, though, it looks like everything had clotted a couple minutes into the run (ie after I'd laced a little tighter):



When you run sockless, this stuff'll happen.  You just have to get used to it.