Ahh, what could be better than sitting on a shelf; pristine, new, solid and colorful? Unless it’s sprinting down the sidewalk watching the sunrise.
I started on a shelf at MJ’s sports store in the mall. Well, really I started at a factory, but that’s the uninteresting part of my life when I was just as all the others. Not long after arriving there I started my life’s adventure when I was bought by an orthodontist named Dana, just after New Years.
Dana was one of those, shall we call them “resolution runners”. You know, the kind that runs right after new years? And, needless to say, I didn’t last long. She’d bought one of the best of my kind, and yet I sat in the closet. A few words are all that are needed to describe the “place of no use”…. Aka the very darkest parts of the closet. Somewhere around June, however I once again saw the light, so to speak, and was transferred to a box.
I then found myself on another shelf. This time in the Goodwill. Ahh, now this. This. Is where my real story begins.
Katie found me later that day. Quickly exclaiming that I was her favorite brand and that I was in excellent condition (which sadly, was more than true) I was on the way to her car in no time.
I can’t even begin to explain the joy of being on a real runner’s feet. Countless times we pounded the pavement in search of joy, energy, and… and… oh I’m not sure what else, sometimes we ran just because. We went everywhere; we ran in the early morning as the sun was rising, we ran when the sun had set, we ran in the heat of the day, when I was nice and sticky with sweat.
Katie and I were inseparable. For the time. I was packed in a bag, and went with her to run on the beaches of the Bahamas. I went to France to visit her family. We ran down sidewalks, down long dirt roads, in the city, in the fields.
Slowly though, I wasn’t able to offer her the support she needed. My arches started to fall, and my soul was run thin. I was outgrown, and wore out.
I find myself on another shelf now, this one in the basement. It might be as dark as the closet was, but this time I’m satisfied. Maybe someday I’ll be pulled out again, and wore for some special reason, but if not I know…
That I served my purpose. I lived my life to the best of my make-up. I gave everything, including my soul to the racer I believed in. And now, I can rest happy, that if that day never comes, I still gave it all.
