In my quest for Fortune and Glory to break 100 miles in a month, I took a gamble that paid out as I anticipated and somewhat not in my favor. My dilemma was that, for some reason, I only had one sock in my workout bag. Yeah, I know! What’s up with that?

So, my options were:

1. Not Run and not break 100 miles
2. Run with the one sock
3. Run with my Khaki Dress Socks
4. Run sockless

It definitely wasn’t going to be Option 1! Option 2 just doesn’t make sense. I wouldn’t chose Option 3 do to a matter of vanity cushioning in the socks, so it was Option #4: Run Sockless.

My Bet (to Myself for $5) was that I would get a blister. *sigh* It’s on the Right Foot Little Toe. It’s not too bad, really, but I should have doctored it up last night. I’ll have to do that tonight.

However, there was an after effect of my blister. I could tell early in the run that I was going to get a blister on the little toe. I should have considered an Option 5, Run Shoeless (but there is too many sharp pokey things on the street) but I was committed to running sans socks.

It’s amazing the heat that builds up in your shoes. When you don’t have a sock that covers the skin layer, you can’t feel the stinky warm air in your shoe. As a way to reduce the pain, I started running with my toes pushed into the bottom of my shoe, to give my little toe precious airspace from the inside of the shoe. I had to do this to both side because it was difficult to be asymmetrical. In soccer, you do this when you are going to kick the ball because it locks your legs and ankle and gives you a nice hard surface to strike the ball (you can create more mechanical power with your muscles that is imparted on the surface of the ball thus giving it a force vector, hopefully in the desired direction).

So for around 3 miles, my legs were in a series of locking and unlocking. This tightened and loosened my shins and now I have a very mild case of shin splints. *ugh*. It’s not that they hurt, but I can feel them, right now, sitting down. Since today is Terry Day, I am going to run a little bit after work. I do have socks with me and I will take some Ibuprofen to help with the pain, I don’t think I will have a problem running tonight, unless my blister wants to give me a problem. We’ll see…