I apologize in advance that the next several months of posts will be mostly about running because there’s just a lot of running happening in our house these days! This week I am preparing to run in my third half marathon on Saturday. Race week is an exciting time with lots of nerves and last minute questioning of everything I’ve done to prepare :). It seems there is always something that gets my attention by the last week and I’m scrambling to figure out what to do. THIS is not good. This is not what good runners do. Don’t be like me! All issues should be fixed on long runs in the weeks of training, but I’ve put one blaring issue off this round: My socks.
You wouldn’t think socks would be such a huge deal. Last year, they were not. I trained the whole year in some old New Balance synthetic fabric socks that I had bought for a trip to Disney World years and years ago. I never had issues with them for my first two half marathons. But, one by one they got holes in them and the holes caused blisters and rubbing so my husband got me a brand new set of Under Armour synthetics at Christmas.
For the first half of training, the Under Armour have been just fine. My judgment on running gear is simple… I don’t want to notice it. If you notice something about a shirt, leggings/shorts, shoes, hat, socks, etc in the first 2 mins you try running in them, it will be a BLARING problem come mile 8. These socks are just fine for the first 5 miles really, then out of no where it feels as though they are digging into my feet, sucking my will to live, and rubbing my arch and ball of my right foot and literally scraping my calluses away (it’s not pretty when I take my sock off. Looks like I went to a butcher for a pedicure!) Heel blisters, I can deal with. They haven’t happened in a long time thankfully, but the bottom of my lead foot? It’s been pretty miserable. I haven’t actually blistered and putting coconut oil and glide on last week helped some, but, I’m hoping that by switching socks I can stop this problem. I’m not so much worried about making it through the half with that pain and annoyance of these socks… but, 26.2 miles? There’s no way. I finished 6 miles this weekend and told my husband I had to make a change because I could not see being able to run another step after finishing in that much pain.
I’ve wondered, is this an MS thing? Some kind of weird nerve sensitivity on the bottom of my foot? But then when I can visibly see that my calluses look like they have been filed down and my arch is red and angry I know it can’t just be something wrong with me.
I’ve also wondered if this new problem has arose because our speed has increased. We’re about a minute faster on average than we were last year. This is cool and I certainly don’t want to slow down in order to fix it! I just need a sock that can keep up with me :).
So, today I did something I never thought I would do. I went sock shopping. For one single pair of socks that cost $12. I’m a frugal person. I don’t like to buy new anything for myself and feel immense guilt for spending that much money on one single pair of socks. But, if I’m serious about continuing this running thing and running in my first marathon in October, I’ve got to figure out this sock thing and find a solution.
After polling friends and reading a million reviews online, I went with the Balega hidden comfort socks. I’m testing them out for our 3 mile in the morning. Fingers crossed!
So, look for an update to the sock saga in the coming days as well as a full blog diary of our half-marathon experience this Saturday! Prayers for health, safety, and a fun run for me, my husband, and our friends are appreciated!
Not Today, MS 