My feet were screaming for mercy. Apologies for the following description, but after New York City’s deep-freeze winter, I had corns between my toes, thick callus pads beneath my big toes, and scaly dry lines all around my foot and up my leg. Both my heels had split, with deep cracks in multiple places; I had been super-gluing the flesh closed to prevent them from splitting further. Walking had become excruciating. Honestly, it was a mess down there. My feet had reached a point of no return.