The Smell of New Running Shoes
It is the odor of optimism
I will confess something that will either make you cringe or nod your head in agreement. Even if you won’t admit it.
When I buy a new pair of running shoes, I take them home, remove them from the box, put my nose inside, and take a deep long breath. Come on now, who doesn’t love the smell of new running shoes? Even if I did try them on at the store. Even if someone else tried them on before me. The smell of new running shoes beats even the smell of a new car. And if you are like me, smelling new running shoes comes much more often than smelling new cars.
Here is another oddity of mine. I also remove the laces and re-lace them in a specific pattern — not that there is anything wrong with the way they are laced out of the box. But lacing the shoes in my preferred pattern cements a new relationship with these shoes and the possibilities of where they will take me.
Will these shoes be the ones that take me to a new PR? Will they take me to the finish line of my first marathon in years? Will I wear them along with a medal at next year’s National Senior Games? Will they simply get me through 400 more miles without downtime due to an injury?
I have a logbook where I keep track of my overall mileage as well as the mileage on my shoes. As I approach 400…
