Wednesday 30 June 2010

Were the flips a flop?

So. How did the Crocs do?

Let's try for a scientific analysis. This'll go well.

First, I'm not a flipflop wearer. Traditionally, away from work, I favour baseball boots, regardless of the weather. Therefore, my footsies were not really prepared for flip-flips and I wasn't entirely surprised that they rubbed the top of my toe and between my toes.

Here's how the flip-flops held up:



These blisters on my heels and the side of my foot came courtesy of my jaunt around the site in work shoes. I have, however, photographed them merely as scientific evidence, since I took photos of them before I left and you can now see how they progressed.

Here's my pre-festival blisters today.





Walking into the site, I was in baseball boots, as I didn't trust myself to be able to drive flip-flops while carrying camping equipment, laptops and all the rest of it. By the time I'd put up the tent, I was all kinds of sweaty in the feet department, and figured I'd give them a test drive.

I was honestly expecting to fall out of them, get someone's discarded Tempura between my toes, or have a cigarette dropped on my foot and abandon them well before the end of the day and retreat to the safety of my boots.

This did not happen. Instead, the flip-flops were a godsend for the whole festival. Friday, I walked 11,032 steps. Saturday was 10,866 steps (lazy..) and Sunday was 12,461 steps.

Each step averaged 70cm, apparently.

And gives me a total of 21.34 miles walked over the course of the weekend.

...

Huh. Wow. Ok. That's a lot.

And here's the results:



Yeah, the between the toes blisters (left foot) aren't fun, but thanks to some blister plasters I didn't really notice them too much while I was wandering around. And I've got no doubt that if I'd worn them around the house before deciding to festival in them, I could have avoided those entirely.

I can honestly say, hand on my heart that it's the only festival when I haven't been in complete foot agony. That's despite the blisters I inflicted upon myself and including the blisters I got from my lack of foot-callouses. In previous years, the soles of my feet have been so painful that I've been unable to walk and have resorted to crawling around the office in the days following the festival and wincing when the weight of the sleeping bag/duvet hit the soles of my feet.

This year, they've been fine. Better than fine.

Let's see a post-festival shot. Post Festival, pre-shower:


You'll notice a distinct lack of injury to my upper foot (apart from the blister on my left foot) - no cigarette burns, no noodle-injuries, no scrapes from stones. I was lucky enough that only one person's foot got wedged between my heel and the flipflops and we both realised it at the same time and took a few vital seconds to sort ourselves out and stop me from falling flat on my face.

The ground at Worthy Farm was mostly solid, and grass/straw/desert, but I navigated metal tracks, wooden bridges and stoney ex-railway lines, as well as slopes without problem. Rather obviously, my feet got filthy, but that seemed a reasonably small price to pay for being able to actually put my feet on the ground without suffering hideous amounts of pain.

So, in conclusion we have:

An inexperienced flip-flop pilot, over 21 miles of walking over four-wheel-drive territory in three days, and coming away with two blisters which wouldn't have been there if I'd given myself the chance to wear them in.

Am I impressed?

Unbelievably so. I'm a convert. I don't know how I managed without Crocs in my festival life before.

And here's a photograph of me trying to photograph my feet. In the office. Like you do.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahaha this made me laff coz i dont do flip flops eitha, i stuck t my base ball boots n i so wish id wore flip flops. maybe nxt year. ive njoyd ya blogs. look fward t them nxt year xxx

bloodbank said...

What very long big toes you have dear.

Anonymous said...

CROCS not= FLIP FLOPS

Laura said...

Anonymous #2 - These were flip-flops, made by Crocs :) http://piltonpop.blogspot.com/2010/06/suspicious-packages.html

Anonymous said...

Oh wow, who'dve known.

Maybe they sent you the special industrial strength that far surpasses their normal quality. I'm on to you Crocs *shakefist*