In many ways I’m a bit old fashioned. I don’t have fancy gore-tex hiking boots because my old British Army issue boots do the job just fine. I’ve never bought a pair of running shoes that cost over £45 because I just don’t see the point. And I’ve never bought specialist running socks because standard sports socks work well enough.

So it was with some surprise that I found myself in a sports retailer about to buy 4 pairs of the aforementioned specialist running socks. I had a gift voucher, I’ve been doing a lot of running and am blistering my feet to hell, so I thought I’d give them a go and see if they’re worth the extra cost (you can get 3 pairs of normal socks for one pair of these). Here is a shot of my swish new Nike running socks in action:

I’ve just returned from a short run after a workout and I must confess they are worth every penny – I should have bought some years ago! They’re much thinner than the socks I normally wear, and they’re ergonomically designed to fit the contours of my feet (according to the instructions) which means I have to get them the right way round – one has an ‘L’ on it, the other an ‘R’!

I won’t say it feels like my feet have been massaged while floating on a cushion of air (because that would be ridiculous), but they don’t feel like all the skin wants to fall off them (as they normally do) and there’s no chafing from sweat soaking them as I’d usually get – it seems to wick the sweat away.

Of course the best thing about buying the socks was the woman at the till who asked me if I’d “like a free England car flag” to which I gleefully replied: “absolutely not thanks – I’m Scottish!”.