Blister Sisters

There’s nothing more common than two ladies hanging out on a Thursday night sipping on a glass of red wine and comparing foot blisters and missing toenails…  Right??  Instead of talking about what happened on Bachelorette, or how our kids swimming lesson went, we find ourselves predicting which of our toenails won’t make it through the end of this running season.   Classy!

Hello.  For those of you who don’t know us, our names are Andrea and Roseanne Leonard. We are two sisters who come from a very active family of six.  We have both played many sports throughout our lives but have settled in on running in the last few years.  

We have a lot of similarities in our personalities, and interests. We love food, shoes, reading and are very stubborn (according to our husbands). The difference between us is in our running.

If you want to learn about different sneakers and how they change the mechanics of your foot placement as you are running, ask Andrea. If you want to know how many gels you can have during a run, ask Andrea. How much can you run while pregnant, again – as Andrea.

I (Andrea) love to read about running. I follow blogs about running. I am mildly obsessed with collecting race medals. I analyze my runs. I can tell you how long my foot was connected to the pavement during my last run and where my pace was higher or lower than planned. I try to follow schedules to the last KM and I truly believe in the process.

What does Roseanne bring to the running table? None of the above.

I (Roseanne) like to run. I lace up my sneakers and start with one foot in front of the other. It is my time to clear my head. I went for my first run when I was twelve with my dad. I remember wearing a pair of black jeans (I had to look cool) and that I skinned my knee (thru the stupid jeans) as I missed a curb. I don’t remember much else from the run, but I know that I was hooked.

My lack of thought, and Andrea’s abundance of thought is a great combination. The last half marathon we ran together, I actually took her advice and fuelled properly. Not surprisingly so, it was a better run for me. When Andrea’s kids kept her up all night and she started to lose steam and kept an eye on the watch with 5km to go, I told her to chill. Stop worrying and just run, or walk, or stop. And then we were off again.

We balance each other. Sometimes we plan to save the world during our runs. Other times we argue. I’m sure we caught Janice off guard during last Sunday’s run when we took opposite sides on the “Ashley Madison” situation. Sorry Janice!!

But then there are the times when we just silently run and for that small amount of time, I am happy to be running along side my best friend.   Tonight was one of those nights. We headed out for run in the dark around Elizabeth Park. The goal was to get at least 5k in and one hill.  We ended up with about 7k and covered every hill in the park except Dungarven.   Not bad for the start of our hill training.

We will continue to blog as Rose wraps up her marathon training and we begin the beloved C2C hill training, but for now, it’s back to the wine and blisters. Good night.