Chapter 4: Aix-en-Provence, Part II

With the start of my 1000-mile journey only weeks out, the pressure to solve the boot problem takes on urgency.

We both know it the second I answer. We can hear it in the accelerating progression of our sentences.

I tear out the Sure Feet and remove the original insoles. Suddenly, it all makes sense. There is too much movement in the heel with the layered up “two-ply” insoles. They are sponging the foot up and down with every step, a movement that is abrading my heels.

It is so simple! Stupidly simple! My heels are bouncing up and down against the back of the shoe as if they are on springs. My heels are being sanded down with every step. That’s why they feel comfortable in the shoe but are still causing such a problem. It all makes sense.

We get to the kids’ school to pick them up, and I remove the originals and walk around the car park with only the Sure Feet insoles, and sure enough without the second layer of insoles the boots even feel different. “They’re amazingly different,” I tell Melanie.

Oh, the relief of a solved problem!

I can finally start taking real walks of serious length and train li…