My Shoe Tree

I love traveling west, the jet lag is nearly worthwhile. After listening to the first two periods of the game (Canucks won in the second OT period, there is no way I could've managed that) my eyelids grew terribly heavy and I was in bed just after 9:00. However, after tossing the cat out at 12:00, I was wide-awake at 1:30, then again at 4:00, 4:30 and finally was out of bed just after 5:00; nothing like getting an early start to the day.

Following a lazy morning, several cups of Twining Earl Grey tea and some spring-cleaning, Ally and I drove out to Thetis Lake on morning bursting with sunshine. It seems I brought the good weather back from England, who would’ve thought?

I hadn’t been out on the trails in months and was looking forward to a favorite route of mine. After a quick goodbye, I was off bearing east looping around Seymour Hill, the legs cursing the rude awakening (a series of three steep hills). Off the hills and onto Highland Road for a short segment before turning left at McKenzie Creek Trail, looping around Prior Lake and toward… my shoe tree (not as shown in photo).

For over a decade, I’ve had this burning desire to locate a piece of Americana folklore, the shoe tree. Unfortunately, my searching has been in vain and about seven years ago I decided to cut to the case and instead make my own shoe tree. Since then, I’ve gone out on there on numerous occasions (old worn out trainers in hand) either by myself or with MD, RC or MT throwing a disproportionate amount of the Asics 2000 series into the tree (I think I started with the 2040s). Today, I managed to secure the shoes on my second hurl and after committing the view to memory (for those dark rainy days) I continued with the jaunt, joining the Upper Thetis Lake Trail and following them back to the barking lot.

Training: an easy 51:16, legs felt okay, I think the run was 6' too long