23 miles and The CoolMesh WRIGHTSock

In continuing with my marathon training and WRIGHTSock wear testing, I ran 23.25 miles yesterday wearing the WRIGHTSock CoolMesh running sock. This sock was thinner than the Running II that I tested earlier in the week. One thing I immeditely noticed was that this sock didn't have the ribbing in the middle of the sock like the Running II did. I actually missed that feature. I liked the feeling of the compression that the other pair has. Other than that, the sock was smooth and comfortable.

A cold front moved into the area on Friday night dropping temperatures about 20 degrees from normal. Saturday morning, I got up at 5:00 am to temperatures in the low 50s. That is really cool for this time of the year when the low 70s is typical. The sky was overcast, the wind was blowing and we weren't sure if we could get the full mileage in.
We went about 4 miles up, stopped, stretched out a little and evaluated the weather. I told my friend that if we didn't do the full run today it would be two weeks before we could do it, but I also would have no guilty feelings about returning home and going back to bed (the jury is still out on whether I made the best decision or not). The weather looked like it was clearing up and the wind had shifted so we chose to continue on. At mile 12, I was exhausted. We stopped at a gas station along the way, used the facilities, chatted with the clerk a little and picked up a granola bar. I thought maybe something with a little texture would be better than the typical gels and gatorade/water combination. I should have gone with the cake donut. It probably would have done about as much for me as the granola bar (which is nothing), but it would have tasted better.

I brought some new Gel along for this run. I picked up some when I bought my new shoes. One difference in this gel was that it had 4 grams of protein. The texture was similar to other gels, but it was also thicker. I bought both the caffeinated and non-caffeinated versions. I took the one with caffeine about mile 12. 42 mg of Caffeine went raging into my already tired system. So, now I am a jazzed tired runner and the wind shifted to be in our face. Turning back meant running up a 3% incline for 6 miles which wasn't an option so we kept going. We got to mile 18, passed the golf course and there was a little burst of confidence in that there was only 5 miles left. We could do 5 more miles. The weather held out for another 2 before it started to rain and drop in temperature. With 1 1/2 miles left a lady (obviously a runner also) stopped and asked how we were holding up and if we deserved a ride. If we had been 5 miles out, I would have been singing praises to her name forever. With 1 1/2 left, we couldn't stop now. It would be like running a 23 mile marathon and claiming we did 26—NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! The block before my house, I parted company with my neighbor and ran/walked up the hill to my place.*

I took off my shoes to evaluate my foot condition. My feet held up really well. I thought I ended up with one or two small blisters, but it turned out to just be where my skin had wrinkled up a little after 3 miles of slogging though the rain. Zero blisters for the run. That puts the WRIGHTSocks at 2 for 2 on non-blister runs. I like the feel of the Running II pair more than the CoolMesh. I don't have sweaty feet to start with so I have never really seen a big difference in coolmesh vs regular running socks. I'm definitely sold on these new socks.

This upcoming week, school starts for the kids. I get to readjust my running schedule because the kid will all be getting up at 6:30 to be ready for school at 8. I may switch my running to a later start time or evenings. I'm glad we got this final long run in. We'll start tapering off toward our September race now.

*Here's another reason why I love my wife: She heard me coming in and had the kids get me a peanut butter sandwich ready and a hot bath going. I could have done the cold bath thing, but I figure I was already soaked and shivering there wasn't much a cold bath would do for me.