Retired Running Shoes

When I started this running journey a little over 2 years ago at the end of 2010 I had no idea where it would lead.  I thought I was going to train for one major half marathon and then call it quits.  I would get to say I ran a half marathon and then move on to other life goals and ambitions.  I didn't know this body of mine could run more than one half marathon in a year.  Wow! What shallow, naive thinking I had back then.  I ended up running 3 half marathons in 2011 and thought that was pushing the limit.

Then along came 2012 and I went totally NUTZO! I won't expound much more on that except to say I ran almost any race I could get my hands on.  Little did I know what would happen to me mentally.  There's this constant drive to run more and see where else I can go on this journey.

So with all that running means my shoes are going to get worn out.  This poor, sad little pair is one of the first pair I owned and trained in.  My good friend Annaleesa gave them to me to help me in my new running adventures and I have used them and abused them beyond any safe limits. 

They don't look so bad from this angle unless you look a little closer to the ankle area.   And then when you look at the tread all worn away and even getting past that layer you realize I abused these poor soles.  When I got new shoes to run in I still didn't have the heart to throw these away and turned them into my walking shoes that I did twice a week with my other good friend Laurie. 

Quite a few different pairs of shoes have been added to my shoe rotation and these poor things simply must now go.  There is no more use for them and I am saying good-bye.  I'll admit I did throw them away once and then went out to the dumpster to rescue them after a couple days.  There's just some strange connection to those first pair of "real" running shoes.  Sigh...........they really are gone now.