How do you ask a lady for a picture of her feet?

In the 15 months I've been writing Blipfoto Journals I've asked many a strange question and requested some odd pictures from our Kiltwalkers, however I think todays request, which I just couldn't think how to ask, will take some beating and went something like:

"Lisa can you take a picture of your feet, with your socks on and email them to me?" Followed by "on second thoughts can you sit down, cross one leg over the other, point your foot ballerina style, and send me that picture".

What you might be most surprised to hear is Lisa said "Hi Ian, no problem I'll gladly do that for you and I'll sort out when I get home". To which I thought "Result, that's today's Blipfoto sorted" :-)

Now before you think something strange was going on, let me assure you Lisa understood what I was up to.

So let me begin.

Lisa, along with her pals Alison Jack and Jill Brown have been training round the clock, in all weathers. Their training, which has included a number of 06:00 starts, is all in aid of getting some miles into their legs in advance of the inaugural Edinburgh Kiltwalk, which takes place on Sunday 19th May.

Taking part in the Edinburgh event was Alison's idea and after roping her sister Jill into taking part, her next target was Lisa.

Alison, an Early Years Officer, motives for taking part in The Kiltwalk are fairly straightforward as the nephew of one of her colleagues, sadly died at an all too early age and as a Mother of young children herself, she could only imagine what it must be like to experience such a traumatic event.

Although the outcome wasn't what anyone wished for, Alison's colleague had nothing but positive things to say about the various charities that supported the family and when Alison found out The Kiltwalk supported the very same charities, it became a " no brainer" for not only her, but Jill and Lisa who also have young families.

This is Lisa's first long distance walk, so in addition to training hard, she's been in touch with our Kiltwalkers through Facebook to pick up as many tips as possible about preparing for the big day.

One of the early pieces of advice offered was that it's "all about the socks" cause if you keep your feet happy on Kiltwalk Day, the rest of your body will follow suit.

This was something Lisa could totally resonate with, as after one of her training walks she had no soles left in her socks, so could feel every little stone and wasn't a happy Kiltwalking Bunny.

Now I've learned by mistakes when it comes to socks, some of which have been. Wear loads of pairs, smother your feet in Vaseline, wear hill walking socks, don't wear loads of socks, all of which resulted in various, sizable blisters.

My best year was last year when I invested in hill walking socks and applied Vaseline which did minimise the blister count. However it was the wise words of Mr Speyside Kiltwalk 2012, Jim Hart who posted several months ago that "1,000 mile socks" are the way to go. Jim, for those of you who don't know is a keen walker and veteran Kiltwalker to boot, so having witnessed his steady Kiltwalk performance over the years, then if anyone's cracked it, Jim's the man.

I'm therefore delighted to say that having converted to "1,000 mile socks" a few months ago and having walked in excess of 100 miles in total, with not a hint of a blister then "thanks for the tip Jim", which I'm now passing on as my own and did indeed pass onto Lisa, who is modelling them so beautifully in today's Blipfoto story (told you there was a reason for the picture).

It would appear Lisa has carried out quite an in depth Kiltwalk investigation as having found out there's an after walk party, she immediately booked the Monday off work.

Finally although this is Lisa's first Kiltwalk, we have reason to believe she has signed up for 16 year's worth of Kiltwalks. You see Lisa decided that she liked the idea of the "1,000 mile" socks so much she bought not one, but two pairs, therefore she has 2,000 miles worth of walking to do. So if my calculations are correct she has a very commendable 77 Kiltwalks ahead of her :-)

You may not wear them out Lisa, but we're very pleased to have you, Alison and Jill take part in our Edinburgh event. Hope to meet you all on the 19th.