I don’t know about anyone else but for the majority of my running ‘career’ I have never had to really think about my feet. I trained, I raced and sure they got beat up a bit but they seemed to just kind of deal with it all without much fuss. But last year this started to change. During my attempt at a fast Bob Graham Round (The Bob Graham 24 Hour Club) for the first time my feet were the major reason for me missing my target when essentially the bottom of my heels fell off! Reasons were found, had I worn in my shoes enough? Had I used my preferred socks? Had I applied the right anti-friction cream and powder? I thought I had it figured out. After all this was the anomaly, maybe it was just ‘one of those things’

Fast forward 14 months and I’m out in the Pyrenees to race Val d’Aran 100 miles (HOKA Val d'Aran by UTMB®). A seriously committing race with 10,000m of elevation gain (and loss!) on steep technical mountain paths.

Andy at Val d'aran, photo credit Louise Braithwaite

One thing about these types of races is the friction that a race like that will put on your feet. I have a memory of seeing someone walking on hot coals on TV as a kid and thinking “how on earth do they do that!?” but ~35 years later and that is exactly what I would describe my feet feeling like on that first major descent. Instant burning and a realisation that this was a disastrous sign of things to come when only 10km into the adventure. All the flashbacks of just how much pain I had to go through to complete the Bob Graham the year before flashed before my eyes and I had further to go than I did then. I did the only sensible thing and dropped out.

Now it was no longer the anomaly, this was a problem that I had to answer. Luckily for me my wife is a professional researcher, and she is seriously good at her job. It didn’t take a lot of putting together. My problem was ‘athletes foot’ a super common thing but one that maybe people (definitely me) don’t take all that seriously. When this fungal infection has taken hold then the skin becomes very liable to become itchy, painful and leave the skin raw. This is before you add in a steep, hot and dusty trail with sweaty feet! 

So now I am on a full on anti-fungal assault and no stone has been left unturned. Examining my daily habits, routine, my equipment and my environment to put together a system of care which brings how hard I can race back into ‘how fit are you?’ or ‘how much do I want it?’  and stop it being ‘are my feet going to make it through this?’. 

Which leads me to the Atacama shoe dryer. Living in Fort William with some of the highest rainfall in the UK wet shoes are a real everyday issue. Combining damp shoes with a warm house and what you have is a petri dish for bacteria to thrive. Wearing those damp shoes from the start of every run dramatically increases your chances of developing issues with your feet. Having something that can cure both of these issues is an absolute no-brainer for me and I’m already seeing the benefits. With a varied drying setting to get the shoes dry and then an O3 setting as well, a 10 minute setting that helps to erode both problematic bacteria and the associated smell, I am seeing a whole new side to my foot health.

When Jess asked “how are your feet looking?” she exclaimed with an honesty only your closest loved one can deliver “Oh wow, you’re actually starting to look like you have normal feet”. I think we’re getting somewhere. 

Andy Fìor-Berry is an ultra runner sponsored by Precision Fuel and Hydration and Petzl

Check out Andy's Instagram profile