plus ça change...

among the wonderful things my mom used to do every time i visited was to find little things she could do for me that i was too indifferent to do myself – she'd make my dad help her wash my car (even scrubbing the rims with an old toothbrush!), or sew the frayed, saggy hems of the 8-year-old clothes i wore until they wore out, or throw my running shoes into the wash. (running shoes don't like being thrown in the wash.)

i am still running in those shoes my mom once threw in the wash, and she passed away a year-and-a-half ago. now i'm getting these weird, deep kinks in my right quad that last for three weeks, and my ankles seem to be trying to say something when they crack melodramatically and send pulses of pain up my tibia as soon as i start a slow jog on grass, so i think i might need new shoes. i don't run consistently – and when i do, it ain't marathon training – so i replace my shoes about once a year and was definitely overdue for a new pair.

i wound up spending exactly $0 on an excellent pair of trail-runners last week, thanks to the lucky intersection of REI's 20%-off sale, annual dividends, and leftover credit on a christmas gift card. my car was in the shop yesterday, so instead of driving out to my usual park trail, i just ran out of the neighborhood and attempted to head up one of the overpasses leading to the waterfront. there's no sidewalk there, but hey, i was wearing trail-runners! i could blaze trails! i took about ten paces up the hill through the weedy overgrowth before tripping spectacularly in the impassable weeds that spat out a circular piece of wire into the road (what my foot had caught on). so the moment after i found myself sprawled on all fours in the dirt, the light turned green and all the traffic going over the f&#!ing overpass passed by very slowly as my ass greeted everyone ¡HOLA!

i got no pride so i stood up, snickered at myself, sighed as i slapped some of the dirt off my knees, and found an alternate route that regular people would probably choose. la la la, shin splints, shin splints. i can't tell if those are from the new shoes or the fact that i completely PILED at the beginning of my little jog, but that's my story. this is why i'm especially in awe of my marathon-running, bay-swimming, triathlete friends – because on my end, i can hardly keep from accidentally killing myself just bopping up the street.