Once again, I am not really sure how I got to the dining tent with a plate full of food and milk. But the thought has crossed my mind that the journey was just too painful to remember. But as I got to the edge of the dining tent I was met with a cacophony of voices that stopped me in my tracks and I just blanked. I stood there, dazed and confused, staring into the tent. I'm really not sure how long I stood there before I heard a voice beside me.
"Do you need help, hon? You look a little lost. Are you ok? Do you need something?" I turned to see the Greeter Girl from Pit Stop 1 looking at me with mild amusement mixed with concern. As I tried to formulate an answer I saw the concern on her face getting more pronounced. Wanting to reassure her I shook my head which sent pain down to my feet. She quickly grabbed my arm.
"I need to sit down and I need to find my friends." I said, still wincing at the pain in my feet. The Girl (one of many whose names I should have learned but didn't) steered me into the tent.
"Let's get you sitting down first, then we will worry about finding your friends." With her hand still on my arm she manuevered me to one side of the tent and sat me in front of a heater for the tent. Hot to Warm air washed over my body and instantly I felt a bit better. The temperature had really started to drop outside. My Guardian Angel offered to get me more to drink and search for my friends, but I waved her off, telling her to eat her own dinner. Shortly after that, I saw L and T navigating through the tent looking for seats. Somehow I managed to get L on her cell and direct them to my spot. We all luxuriated in the warmth for quite a while as we took in dinner. We sat through much of the evening entertainment as well, trying very hard to postpone the inevitable. But we were both hurting so bad, that we knew we were going to have to hit the medical tent. That meant we had to get up and walk over to the Medical tent.
Finally deciding we needed to move, T offered each of us an arm to help us across camp. But once again the AWESOME members of Crew came to the rescue. A Crew girl was doing a trash run near us when we emerged from the tent. Instantly noticing we were in need of help she converted her mini-truck into an ambulance and gave us a ride to Medical. I had to sit on L's lap and there was one moment where I was afraid I might go bounding out of the vehicle, but we made it there in A LOT less time than it would have taken us to walk.
This is where I learned I have unusually high arches for such small feet. The swelling around the balls of my feet was due to excessive pressure being put on the arches without enough support underneath them. The doctor strongly urged I get orthotics if I wanted to continue long distance walking. With instructions to where the sneakers with the best arch support on the last day and to ice the bottom of my feet as much as I can, I was sent on my way. L had some larger issues and was in the tent for a bit longer while they iced both her ankles and her thigh.
By the time she returned from the medical tent I had lined my sleeping bag with the thermal blanket they gave me at the medical tent and had snuggled into sleep. It was a cold night.
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