Blisters on top of blisters

My feet are pretty used to having gnarly-looking blisters on them.  In fact, at any given moment, I usually have a black/bruised toenail and at least one fresh or one remnant of a blister. They're a fact of running. I wear special wicking socks, I make sure there is plenty of room in the toebox of my shoe, and yet I still routinely get blisters on all my toes. 

Yesterday I discovered a particularly painful one. I'd gotten a blister after the Laguna Hills half marathon on the outside of my big toe on my left foot. It had popped and drained, as usual, and I paid no attention to it. Well, over the course of the next 2 weeks, I kept developing new blisters in pretty much the same spot - blisters developing on top of blisters. Yesterday morning I peeled my sock off before heading to the shower and discovered that the entire side of my toe was a gruesome looking yellow mass of half-popped, half-fresh blister, with a small sore gash next to it. I wore flip-flops to work to give my foot room to breathe, but by the afternoon, my toe was throbbing even while sitting at my desk and I was hobbling around. I came home and rested on the bed for a while, but my toe was throbbing in pain so bad that the slightest touch of the blanket or rolling over was agony. I put some neosporin and a band-aid on overnight and that helped a bit -- enough to enable me to get a 12-miler in this morning with only mild discomfort.

I've heard it said that the most painful part of a run is actually the shower after the run, and when the water in the shower this morning hit the side of my toe and I gasped in pain, I saw the wisdom of that statement.  I've never been this disabled by a blister that wasn't under my toenail (those effers hurt). It's almost impressive. I'm supposed to do the mud run down in Pendleton tomorrow. I'm hoping my toe cooperates, because marathon training starts on Monday officially and I can't afford to get off to a bad start because of some poopy blisters.

Today's run: 12.3 miles, about 1 hour 48 minutes, Aliso & Wood Canyon. Plus stopped at the gym to do biceps.