Always, ALWAYS take care of your feet.
“It’s the first rule of field work”,
a wise man once told me.
Your feet are your immediate connection with the earth, the contact point from which stems all alignment or misalignment up the rest of your body. When talking about field work that means keeping your feet dry and warm. Good boots, extra socks. The same goes for running - sort of.
I’m talking about running shoes and socks. Unfortunately, everyone's feet are different, so there can’t be one superior running shoe. I’ve detailed my experiences with trial and error in the shoe department in a previous post, so for the sake of this post, let it be known that I tried several different brands and ultimately landed on the Nike Pegasus.
I've run in Pegasus for a few years now, and I still seem to like them the most. When there is a sale on a different shoe or brand, I will try them just out of curiosity. I recommend everyone engage in this process when they ask me for shoe recommendations.
Socks are a little easier to make hard recommendations for, and I recommend Merino Wool, also known as SmartWool or used in Feetures brand socks. I cannot recommend these costly socks highly enough - and here's why.
While you're running, friction on the bottom of your feet begins to wear hot spots and soft spots between your foot and shoe. This used to happen to me regularly after about 4 miles. I would notice the discomfort on the bottom of my foot and try to change my stride a bit or my cadence, but that rarely worked. This was before I discovered Merino Wool.
I had signed up for the Montana Spartan Beast 21k (if you're not familiar with them, Spartan Beast 21k races are intense), and I was gearing up for the race. I knew good and well that I was going to be trudging through the Montana mountains for hours and that I would be doing it wet. If there's one thing that Spartan loves, it's forcing you to get wet, traversing sections of swamp and man-made water pits.
Knowing this, I worried about blistering early on in tough trail shoes, so I went searching for the best anti-blister tech that the running world had to offer. I ultimately found two products that came in high regard:
- Body Glide’s Foot Glide anti-chafe rub
- Merino Wool, or in my case SmartWool
I bought both.
I would recommend the body glide for specific spots that may be tender or already blistered, but for general foot care, it probably isn’t ideal.
The SmartWool, on the other hand, far outperformed my expectations. You can feel the reduction in friction. Your foot actually slides around in the shoe a bit, which is different at first but didn’t create any problems for me. That whole race my feet didn’t blister. I was elated. At one point the socks did slide off of my heel, which forced me to stop and resituate them, but I felt that was rather inconsequential.
After that race, I continued running in the SmartWool and in my old socks. The stark difference became clear in a matter of weeks. SmartWool meant no blistering pain; old socks meant pain. I have slowly transitioned (by buying a few pairs at a time) to SmartWool only. I’m not sponsored by them, and believe me when I tell you that I wish I was. I just think they have a truly great product.
My feet sure do thank me for making the switch, too.
