Empire Builders and the Myrtle Beach Marathon - TR*

As a young, 19 year old Midshipman I found myself serving in HMS Nottingham during which time I had two memorable deployments. The first included visits to Spain, Portugal, Madeira, Tenerife, Mauritania and Morroco before we returned to the UK for a quick touch up of paint and store-ship before setting sail for the West Indies. It was a hard life which revolved mainly around me and the other young officers onboard building ornate fountains on the forecastle for the inevitable cocktail party on the first night of arrival in each port.

I vividly remember leaving the ship and flying back from Peurto Rico just before Christmas. At that time the Royal Navy had a little bit more money and I was flown club class on British Airways. As you might imagine at 19 having just toured a number of wonderfully exotic ports before flying back to see my family at Christmas, sipping champagne all the way, I thought the Navy was great!!

Whilst I was deployed to those sunny climes I would wear the uniform in the top right, or is that left, hand picture. As you can see by any modern standards you look a bit of a 'dork' in that getup, mainly due to the knee high socks which were effectionately refered to as Empire Builders. But it did mean that I acquired that peculiarily British trait of being able to feel no embarassment when dressed as an idiot and I now feel able to cope with the inevitable ridicule that will follow my purchase of a pair of Oxysox.




Oxysox are compression socks which cover your calf and something similar has been sported by Paula Radcliffe for some time and could be seen on Sindballe at the 2007 Kona Ironman. The 'claim' is that they increase VO2 max by increasing the blood flow to your core aswell as reducing swelling and fatigue in your legs. They are also meant to speed recovery following a long workout.

There is plenty of anectodatal evidence that these socks work but little in the way of hard proof. I figure that it cannot do any harm to try them out and apart from the p#sstaking that may be thrown my way I have nothing to lose. I am hoping they arrive by Saturday so that I can try them on a longer run before the marathon. If not I may not wear them at Myrtle beach either out of because I do actually get embarrassed, despite my claims, or because I haven't tried them out. Worst case I can always wear them after the race (under some trousers) to aid in recovery and reduce swelling.

I will let you know afterward if they did anything for me. I have also had to buy a new pair of trainers as my old ones are finished and the Zoot trainers are not here yet. I nearly always go for Asic GT 2100's as they do a wide fitting. I bought a pair of Adidas Cushion 6 before Christmas and although they are really comfortable I cannot run longer than an hour in them as they are a fraction too narrow. Asics on the other hand do 2E and 4E wide fittings. I have just replaced my GT 2120s 2E with a pair of GT 2130 4E. The 2120s were a little stiff but fitted very well and although the 2130 4e feel bigger than I expected I am hoping they will be just as comfortable.

As a forefoot striker I find there are very few shoes designed for my style of running, most have heavy padding on the heel for heel strikers. The adidas were pretty good and Newton do a pair of trainers designed for forefoot/midfoot strikers but they are pretty expensive and take some getting used to. The Zoot shoes sound really interesting but in the meantime I will make do with Asics and the unecessary padding in the heel. I also struggle to get lighter shoes in wide fittings even Asics, as far as I am aware, do not do their DS trainer, similar to GTs but lighter, in the wide fitting. Serves me right for having freakish feet, very wide with a really high instep and one foot is a size bigger than the other - yes I have hobbit feet.