Dayy 118 - Shoes

 SHOES

Prompt - Shoes : What kind of shoes do you wear?  Where do they lead you feet?

That time of year is here again.  Well almost, as it's a bit cold yet!  But when the rains vanish and the sun comes out I will be getting my walking boots back out again.  A few short walks to begin with, to get the feet reconditioned, then starting push up the distances, until I'm back to doing twenty kilometres and more.

Of course the feet should already be used to them, but we have been in lockdown mode, and sporting events were not for mere fans to attend.  In more usual times the boots would have been kept bedded in over the winter, my preferred footwear at Murrayfield to watch Edinburgh Rugby do their thing.  Preferred largely because that lets me wear two thick pairs of socks, an essential component in preventing desperate shivering.  But now preferred also for their colour scheme.  Those blue boots suffered a broken lace at the end of last summer, and their replacements are a bright orange, to match my team's colours.

But attendance at rugby matches has had to be virtual for many months now (other than one outing last August when the SRU were permitted to experiment with a socially distanced crowd.  It wasn't even cold enough for the boots.  So the boots have sat, waiting patiently, until their summer role drags them from the top shelve of the hall cupboard.  That time is now.

My previous boots were bought specifically to attend games at Murrayfield.  Albeit back then it wasn't in the stadium, but in the covered art deco venue next door, the team was Edinburgh Capitals, and the sport ice hockey.  The rink was affectionately known as Freezerfield as it was the coldest in the league.  Wearing those boots, and the double socks they allowed for, meant I was consistently toasty though my normal three hour Sunday night stint in the place.  Then came my conversion to kilt wearing.

That came from a desire to do Kiltwalk to raise fund for the Capitals, but their sudden demise meant I'd walk for money for Advocard, where I was a long standing volunteer.  So the boots took on a new role, more like the one they were envisaged for by the manufacturers.  It wasn't hill walking, nor trekking across countryside, but pounding the streets of Edinburgh.  Helping my body adapt from walking perhaps eight or nine kilometres, to fifteen and twenty and more.  Continuous walking, trying to set a decent time, then a better time.  I set myself various routes, but once I was up to speed the most enjoyable was the full length of the Water of Leith Walkway.  And then the Kiltwalk itself, which proved to be really enjoyable, and less taxing on my ageing body than I'd expected.  I managed to do the route a lot quicker the year after.

Then the pandemic came.  My old boots developed a fault, were replaced by the new blue numbers.  Over the summer I still did my walks, avoiding people as much as possible, and while there was no formal Kiltwalk taking place I did complete a virtual one, walking the river walk previously mentioned in about three and a quarter hours.  Since when the boots have sat waiting for their chance to re-emerge.

There won't be an Edinburgh Kiltwalk this year.  I am waiting to see what the 'national' one will look like due to take place in Glasgow at the end of August.  Will the logistics make it feasible? I hope so.  If they do then I need to be prepared.  I need to start training, I need to break those blue and orange boots in again (or maybe I mean my feet...).  In a few days they will be back on, shorts donned, and I will walk in excess of ten kilometres, and see how I feel.  Then build up gradually, week by week.  Even if there is no Kiltwalk for me this year I can still enjoy the walks, the feeling of my legs getting stronger, the sun on my face, the sense of detachment it brings.  I have discovered, quite late in life, how much I like walking.  Alone with my own thoughts, just me pushing myself as hard as I can.  That might be a bit tougher now, being yet another year older, and having some breathing issues after a bout of (probably) covid, but I'll do my best and be content with that.  Those boots will take me over familiar paths - stretches of the usual KW route, a trek out to Murrayfield via the coast, into East Lothian, along the aforementioned walkway, and along the Union Canal.  I like to think the boots are looking forward to it as much as I am.