Monthly Archives: March 2016

A well-trodden testimony

I enjoyed Deborah Harrison’s blog about the challenges and inspirations of her New Year’s resolution. Like Deborah, I’m trying to walk everyday.  And like  Deborah, there’s still so much I want to do with my life:

A New Year’s Resolution isn’t just for Christmas…

I recently wrote a short piece for a non-fiction course with Midge Gillies at Madingley Hall, Cambridge.  We were asked to write about a pair of shoes.

A well-trodden testimony

We’re pleased to be part of a long accomplished line.  We appreciate that our kind must be renewed on a regular basis. No doubt Julie has lost count of how many forerunners we have; how many she’s worn in, and then out, since 1975 when she started upon what would have been described as the running habit of a lifetime, only the habit now appears to be dwindling.

We’re proud to have ancestors that made the grade.  We look up to those who’ve achieved the seemingly impossible. Crossing the finishing line after the ultimate distance, not once but twice.  We’re proud to wear Julie’s triumphant red laces on ten K treks, a distance that would have been classed as modest in comparison to a marathon but is now no longer attempted.

We’re content to take a daily stroll that’s not too taxing.  It’s not that we don’t want to live up to our name.  On close inspection, our irregularities signify the extensive use that we have had, borne down by Julie’s increasingly uneven gait that at one time would have been declared perfect but is now favouring left over right.

We’re relieved to bypass the fields and the mud.  We have dirt ingrained in our treads and we’re grey, not white.  Julie put us through the washer after a January park run so that our metallic strips may still flash like new.  The prospect of a cross-country route through farms and rivers, which at one time would have been exhilarating, is now rather daunting.

We’re delighted to see the sun when we leave the house.  We know the spirits can be lifted by a sky that beckons the spring.  Previously, the necessity of preparing for a special race has taken Julie out in all weathers, temperatures from minus five to plus thirty.  An icy, fourteen-mile slog that would have been taken in one’s stride, need now no longer be contemplated.

We’re not afraid to go off the beaten track.  We understand how being solitary can open up space for contemplation.  But once, in the twentieth mile, away from anywhere and anyone, Julie ran out of fuel and had to phone for a pick up.  No matter what distance, training alone would have been the preferred option and now, whilst it’s good to get away, it’s also good not to be too far from home.

We’re grateful to welcome a new sense of tranquillity.  We know how much courage it takes to break away and seek out a new life.  For Julie, meeting John – whilst running –was a mixed blessing.  It took a sustained effort to leave him behind and at the finish, much more than endorphins were released.  Pressing on regardless of pain would once have been normal, and now we see how right it was to take a different route.

These running shoes, aged 3, belong to Julie Bounford, aged 54.

Taking a different route
Taking a different route

How are you getting on with your New Year’s resolution?