There is a Toad in my shoe

Image via Wikipedia

There is a toad in my shoe

Here in Australia you are always told as a child that if you get into the habit of checking your shoes

left on the porch or outside you will ensure no little critters will get into your boots and attack your

toes as you slide your foot in. I was not thinking of this when I sat down on the porch

and pulled my shoes on getting the most horrible shock, when after realizing my foot was not going

to slip in, I hastily withdrew my foot and up ended the shoe, only to have a very startled

toad drop out and hop off.

Now this can be a cause for a laugh as we both got quite a shock but after I got over it I

started to reflect on why the toad was in there in the first place.

Toads as in the manner of all creatures, are not pushy types and they will make a home in a cool environment

that not being used for anything else .

My running shoes have not been used for a while, now admittedly I have an injury that keeps me from running so they they not much in demand.

I paused then to reflect on the possible learning that could be in this incidence without being too deep and meaningful.

I realized that by not accepting I could not train and run competitively and cast of my shoes , I had really pushed away  a lifestyle and  an Identity that I had before my injury,  tying self and identity to success in my sport.

I used my sport as a lot of things, one was a tool in keeping my depression under management and feeling good about myself

By finding a worthiness in being a high achieving athlete, I had created a void that I have been experiencing

since my inability to compete.

What had happened is that I had forgotten about life outside triathlon, long runs

and Sunday races that’s why when I tried to slip into other boots that haven’t been

used for a while I discovered a toad in them.

Struth bit of a wake up call so where do I go from here ,well I will check my shoes before I put

my toe’s in them that’s for sure, but back to the lesson.

Being fixated on one thing, and it is real easy to do in an athletic pursuit

you have to remember that there is more going on than your narrow point of focus

or may be that is just me?

Finding out I could not run was a very big thing for me, which turned up the depression knob,

but the realization that I really struggled with, was I had so much identity attached to being a

successful triathlete that I could not even think about doing something for fun and not having

to be the best, or as I am prone to saying, to being at the pointy end of the race.

So lesson learned, enjoyment in sport is about social connection, participation at what ever level

you get your success from , having an understanding and appreciation that all aspects of life

are contributers to success.

So do not leave areas of your life to sit outside, and be cast off or you might just end up with

something worse than a toad sneaking in to to bite you on the toe.

Talking about shoes sort of    These Guys have gone out on a limb and put a new trail running shoe on the market

For the past 15 years have designed top-of-the line gear for almost every major athletic company. They started as staffers for Nike in the late 1990s and most recently were independent contractors assisting Under Armour launch a line of football cleats.

But late last year the two launched their own company, 20 Degrees North, and started seeking their own piece of the $46 billion outdoor-recreation market.

“It’s probably not the best time to start a shoe company,” “But we’ve been designing for everyone else for years, so why not do it ourselves? How hard can it really be?”

Last month the duo launched their first product, a line of bright-colored running shoes for the 40 million

American joggers who run on off-road trails, here in Australia we are seeing a big interest in of road

Triathlon  where the uneven terrain of mountain passes, beaches, and forests necessitates a wider, more

stable running shoe than those worn by track-and-field athletes.

About a dozen companies, including Adidas and Asics, already sell trail-running shoes, but 20 Degrees’ founders say the market lacks a clear leader.

For research, they examined photos and Internet footage of big cats’ paws, discovering that their pads – not claws – wrapped around rocks and uneven terrain to give them better stability.

“Other companies look at putting hard teeth and large pieces on the bottom of shoes to give them stability – that adds weight,”

Instead, 20 Degrees fitted the bottom of its shoes with lightweight, blown-rubber traction pads and grooves to make them work more like paws. The company also used an injection-molded manufacturing process that is generally associated with Crocs not high-performance sneakers. And although that makes the shoes almost twice as expensive to make, it resulted in a trainer that is almost two ounces lighter than competitors’.

But no matter how light and agile their shoes are, it’s hard to break into the shoe market, especially in such a niche.

To build credibility among die-hard athletes, 20 Degrees is targeting the some 28,000 runners that participate each year in Xterra races, a series of triathlons held all over the world. In 2007, 20 Degrees inked a deal with Team Unlimited, the Maui firm that runs the Xterra races, and is selling its shoe under the Xterra name. The Maui location is also the inspiration for 20 Degrees’ name: Hawaii is found at 20 degrees latitude.

As a result, the Xterra shoe will get exposure at races and on Xterra Planet TV, a sports cable network that, according to Team Unlimited CEO Tom Kiely, gets about 50 million viewers a year. The company also has access to five Xterra-sponsored athletes, competitive runners who have been testing 20 Degrees’ shoes since spring.

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