Socks for Every Running Occasion

Advanced fabrics have come a long way since my racing days in the 1990s. Back then, I used to wear thick running socks designed to provide cushioning around the heel and the balls of the feet. Unfortunately, with sweaty feet like mine, after a long run those same socks felt like ankle weights filled with water. Heaven forbid it rain on race day. Fast forward to today and the socks they have developed are pretty amazing, especially the ones that stay dry under all sorts of conditions. I ran pretty hard today - mile warm up, mile cool down, with lots of hill sprints in-between - but my socks were bone dry when I took off my shoes, even though my feet were still sweating. How do they do that?

However, in my enthusiasm to try my fancy socks for the first time, I tossed out the packaging without reading the instructions on how to properly wash them. If they're designed to stay dry, do I even need to put them in the dryer? Is fabric softener safe to use? (The arbiter of all knowledge and credibility, the Internet, says that no, you should not use fabric softener, since it could ruin a sock's wicking ability). Unfortunately, less than a week after getting several pairs, I've already lost a sock, relegating its other half to irrelevance. Or optimistically, I now have a spare in case another goes missing. At the end of the day, though, will something as mundane as socks really affect my performance? Who knows. But at my fledgling level of fitness, I welcome any edge that I can get.