Running With Wet Shoes

A week or two ago Mary, The Green Girl, asked some advice about running a trail race with a water crossing that will leave you with wet shoes. Her question was around how to deal with wet shoes and water crossings.

My answer was: just carry on running normally as if the water crossing wasn't there or as you would with dry shoes.

To add a bit more perspective on the question: Mary runs with custom made orthotics in her shoes. I am lucky that I don't need anything like this but the basic reasoning behind my answer stays the same.

We run with wet shoes and feet all the time. If you run a half marathon or longer I will bet my life on it that your feet and shoes are wet at the finish. It is the same for most shorter runs as well because we sweat. I have completely wet socks after every run I do. The difference is that we don't feel the moisture as much because it is the same temperature as our skin on our feet. When running through water we feel the water because it is colder than our feet are. This make us much more aware of the wet feet and shoes.

Yes, of course the shoes get totally soaked sometimes and are heavier for a while, but I believe this is no reason to run differently or change shoes or socks. I don't believe this is any different from doing a long run and running with wet feet, socks and shoes from sweating.

Most people seem to worry about blisters when they think about wet shoes and socks. If you get blisters from your socks or shoes you need to change the socks or shoes. Something causes the blisters and it is not wet feet, socks or shoes. We all have run thousands of miles without blisters and we did this while running the last parts of all our runs with wet feet, socks and shoes.

If you get blisters on your feet fairly often, you need to change something. Running races with water crossings or in the rain will then almost certainly cause some blisters. If you don't get blisters from your training you most probably won't get blisters from wet shoes or socks when running through water.

I never get blisters and I am sure it is because I learnt over many years of running which shoes and socks work for me. Even during all the races where the photos in this post was taken I never got one blister. I never took my shoes off during any of these races and have never changed socks during a race or run.

So my full answer to Mary's question is: if you run in the right shoes and wear the right socks, you don't need to do anything when you run through water. Just carry on running normally. 

How do you know if you are running in the right socks and shoes? You don't get blisters or other foot problems...ever. If you do, change your shoes or socks before doing any races with water crossings. Then again, you might run in rain any day and if that doesn't cause problems you know all is well. If rain runs end with blisters for you, change something.

Enjoy those water crossings!