It's all in the socks!

On the road between Sherburn and St James Minnesota - sporting sunflower socks

Prior to the summer's run, I realized that my sock supply was woefully inadequate - both in number and quality. I did not have enough socks on hand to provide my feet with a fresh pair of socks for each of the 12 15-mile segments I would be running between laundries - and, if one counted only the hole-free socks, I really didn't have enough to make it between laundries. So I went sock shopping.

I generally do not care for shopping - but socks are a different matter. They can be very fun - especially when browsing through running socks of various designs. So! I got me six pairs of socks, each with a different design, plus a pair of free Brooks socks, and a pair of "going away" socks - and that added to my carefully counted six pair of hole-free socks gave me just enough socks to make it through the week, with a couple of spare pairs.

Once on the road, though, I discovered some nuances:

• The new socks were a tad thicker than my older socks and consequently were not entirely comfortable for my afternoon runs when my feet were a bit swollen.
  
• I needed to wear the ankle-high model (rather than the low-cut model) of socks when running trails in order to keep dirt and pebbles from creeping into my socks.
  
• However, when I was dealing with my sore leg, the low-cut socks were easier on my swollen leg.
  
• As the miles added up, so did the holes in my sock supply. So then I had to wear the newest socks in the mornings (when I generally ran more than 15 miles), saving the holey socks for the lesser mileage of the afternoons.
• And, of course, if a state line crossing was on tap for the day, I simply had to wear my Colorado flag socks.
  

Tricky business this sock stuff!

So why am I bringing it up today? Well, being October 31st, I wanted to wear a pair of socks that offered a Halloween flavor. As I went through my sock drawer, I saw a pair with a yellow/orange-colored design that I had left behind thinking they were my smiley-face pair that had too many holes to take on the trip. Lo and behold, they were my sun logo socks that I had entirely forgotten about. A favorite pair, no less, since the logo is much like the logo for Kendall's family's ski lodge (which they no longer own). I can't believe I neglected to take them on my Run To Michigan! But now I have a hole-free pair of socks with one of my most favorite designs. Bonus!