Posted on my “blog” at Runner’s World
I’ve been participating in these monthly run-raffles at a nearby running store, where they give away shoes, GPS watches, races entries, and so forth. My first night there, they were throwing socks into the crowd. And then, out of hundreds of people I won… a gift certificate for socks. I have to say I was sort of disappointed.
When I started running 5-ish years ago, I was in old sneakers, gym shorts, cotton briefs, cotton t-shirt, chunky mp3-player. I was too slow and running distances that were too short for any of those things to be a problem. But I wanted to get into it, so I went to the internet. I was told shoes! You must have the right shoes!
So I went and got the right shoes. Did one of those treadmill tests, you know, with the video camera and the sales associate who knew how to link my stride to the shoe they wanted to sell me. Yes, I’m being cynical here. Turns out the guy was way wrong, that my natural-forefoot strike doesn’t need any kind of correction at all.
But he also talked me into getting some socks. And for that I’ll be eternally grateful. I also, over the course of a few months, learned about moisture-wicking fabrics for my shirts and undershorts. I got a slick mp3 player and an arm-band to hold it. But it was those socks that changed me from a guy who sometimes goes for a run to a real runner.
There have been times when I’ll want to go for a run, and maybe I can’t find the shirt I want, so I make do. Or my shoes are muddy from a previous run, so I’ll use an old pair. Or I have to revert to gym shorts again because I haven’t done the laundry. But run in anything besides my running socks? Forget it.
Anything else and my feet get uncomfortably hot almost immediately. My toes feel cramped and suffocated. Blisters and not just likely, but guaranteed. Chafing on the ankle. Cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria.
Yeah it’s probably more psychosomatic than anything. But whatever gets me out there is a good thing, and this an ode to help me remember that. The other day I found myself frantic, looking for clean socks. No socks, no run! (I’ve tried barefoot running and I like it but my calves won’t let me do it all the time). Finally I found one of those pairs I’d won in that running-store raffle… and you should have seen the smile on my face. Sure, a new expensive GPS watch would have been cool, but it would have been worthless, me sitting next to the washing machine, waiting for my socks to get clean.