And here's to you, Mr. Nike Air Structure Triax

This is you yesterday, after our last run together,  perched on your little dirt-catcher-flower-pot with your Stick in the background.

I remember what you looked like when I first pulled you out of the box and removed the little cardboard feet stuffed inside you that helped you keep your shape when you still lived in a shoebox.

Now it's time for you to retire.  On Thursday I'll take you back to Niketown and dump you in a plastic bin up near customer service, where you'll be ground into rubber chunks and recycled into a playground surface and little kids will run all over you.  But you won't mind, because you're a running shoe and you like people to run on you.

We really went places together, 355 miles.  We always had a great time too, you and I.  Both of you.   Our very first run together was the day before the Chicago marathon when we ran an easy 2 miles around Millennium Park.  We hit it off very well- because the next day, we ran a marathon.  And trust me, I don't just run marathons with any old shoe.  Then I put you away for a few weeks, until your predecessors were ready to retire.  Notice that they did not get to run in the marathon- you did.

We ran together through the autumn in Central Park- remember all those gorgeous Saturday afternoons on the bridal path running over a rainbow of fallen leaves?  Remember morning runs around the reservoir?  We went to Philadelphia together too, where you helped me run my fastest half-marathon ever.

You got me out the door even on rainy days.  When I'd get back to my apartment soaking wet, I'd dump the puddles you'd collected down my kitchen drain and lay you on the radiator to dry overnight.  You always liked coming home so clean and un-muddy.  Wet days were the only time the dirt would dissapear from your treads.  Your sidewalls would shine white with the wisdom of an experienced and worn-in shoe, not like the virgin blind-you-white of just-out-of-the-box shoes.  It'd only last a few days though, until we ran on the bridal path together again.

What did you think about running in Colorado together?  Our first run there was about 19 degrees and snowing.  Was that the first time you'd seen snow?  I remember cursing about my frozen little toes as you blazed fresh powder footprints down the Boulder Creek Path.  But I suppose warm feet duty belongs to the socks and not you guys, right?  You held up like troopers though, through that thin air and up all those Boulder hills.

And here we are now... it was great while it lasted, and now it is time to move on.  Thank you for all those miles we ran.  You really went the distance.