Meadows 2 Mile Race - Yet Another PB (and Compression Socks)

On Wednesday I ran the last of this year's Self Transcendence races at The Meadows.  The official results are already in and I ran in 12 minutes 42 seconds.  This is a PB by 39 seconds, and beats 13 minutes 20 seconds that I ran the same race and distance on the 23rd July (which was day 48 of the running streak).  The run was tough.  I gave it everything from the start and by the end I was struggling for breath.  I think I started a bit too fast and my pace went down quite a bit on the second and third kilometre compared to the first (I always use kilometres for pacing even when running an imperial measured race).

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	12:42.0	3.23	3:55
1	3:47.4	1.00	3:47
2	4:00.0	1.00	4:00
3	4:02.8	1.00	4:03
4	:52.7	0.23	3:52

I'm pleased with the PB and it's good to end the Self Transcendence race series on a high.  

On another note - compression socks!  

I see a lot of people wearing compression gear.  From socks to those crazy army things.  I am not sure about the purpose of having compressed arms to help run, but apparently the logic of the socks is that it encourages circulation at the bottom of your legs which is helpful when running, and also it stops or reduces muscles "bouncing up and down" which is a bad thing.  I think if the muscle bounce thing is true, then you'd really need to wear the socks every time you ran to get that benefit.  So anyway, I invested in a pair of compression socks.  One of the photos below is me wearing the socks.  See if you can spot which one...

My verdict so far is that they do no harm although thanks to their tightness, leg hairs do tend to stick through the socks which is not a good look!  In fact now I think about it, maybe they are just not a good look at all?!  They didn't help me run any faster.