Has something like the following ever happened to you? You are excited at the thought of starting a big race, you cross the starting line, and you notice within a mile that one of your shoelaces is untied. Or you start a race, you begin to hit your stride a few minutes after crossing the starting line, and you almost run over a racer who has stopped in the middle of the road to bend down and tie his running shoe’s shoelace.
What does this tell you about shoelaces for running shoes: that they are not important, or that they are very important?
If you have had either of the above experiences, then you will have to say that shoelaces for your running shoes are very important.
Shoelaces as we know them today date back to the 12th century, according to medieval footwear on display at the Museum of London. And the 1991 discovery of the iron-age mummy known as Similaun Man revealed a primitive form of shoelaces dating back to around 3300 B.C.
But how often do you take time to appreciate the shoelaces on your running shoes? Of course, once they are securely tied, you should be free to think about other things, right?
Tying a shoe has become so automatic or unconscious for most of us that (a) we assume that we always tie our running shoes’ shoelaces properly, so (b) we almost never think about them consciously.
Having a running shoe become untied in the middle of a race can be so disturbing, though, that an entire “lacing system” industry has developed in the running world.
One way to raise your awareness of everything that supports you as a runner is to take time regularly to feel gratitude for those things. And your shoelaces are among them.
Toward that goal, here are some statements of gratitude for you to consider regularly.
- I am truly grateful for the way that my shoelaces can be tied so easily.
- I am thankful that this invention, which dates back many centuries, if not many millennia, serves me today.
- I appreciate that the ends of my shoelaces never fray.
- I love that my shoelaces are constructed in such a way that most of my knots are very secure.
- I am grateful to those creative enough to improve shoelaces for running shoes.
Do you have any other ideas? Add them to this list, or make your own list. And take time regularly to feel gratitude for the shoelaces on your running shoes.
