When my Mom and I were at the Flying Pig expo, she picked up a pair of balega socks. She really enjoyed them, and asked me to pick some up for her before I came home this week. When I was in Denver last weekend, I was in a running store and picked her up a few pairs. As I waited in line to pay, the woman in front of me mentioned that the socks SHE was purchasing were “the best running socks”. I peered over towards the counter and asked her which socks those were. Balegas! I told her that I was a smartwool girl, but I was buying balegas for my Mom. She told me that she liked smartwool for hiking, but ran in balegas. As I was already in an “experimental sock phase“, I grabbed a pair for myself.
Today I’m in Edmonton, running the 3K Family Fun Run as part of River Valley Family Festival (Edmonton Marathon weekend). I decided to give the balegas a try.
My first impression was that despite the fact they have different sizes (I went with small), the socks are a little bigger than I expected. There was plenty of room in the toebox, and when I went to put my shoes on, I actually had some extra sock bunch-up at the heel. This isn’t unusual for regular socks (aimed for size 7-9 for women), but I was disappointed since these were size small.
The socks were very cushy and comfortable, however, and I didn’t notice them being too large when running. Once finished the 3k run, I tried to assess how I felt. My feet were warm, but that could have been related to the temperature being in the high 80s! The extra room in the toebox allowed me to stretch my toes out a bit, and overall they felt pretty good.
Obviously, a 3k fun run is not a really great test, but it was enough for me to be willing to give these socks another try. I will admit that I may wait until it gets to be a bit cooler out. The style I got was the Enduro Red, which is not considered a particularly heavy sock. I can’t imagine how warm those could be!
Another good place to buy smartwool is shoepeddlers.com
Smartwool Adrenaline Heavy Crew – A heavy full cushion spells mattress-like comfort in our Adrenaline Heavy Crew, a calf-height sock made with our patented Smartfit system for luxurious performance and fit.