Karen writes: Shoe mystery

The last two weekends have been pretty much spread out half Ironman events.  Big ride on the Friday, swim Saturday, and run Sunday, a lot of hours under my feet or wheels so to speak in a relatively short space of time.

Friday just gone I got on my bike for my 2nd 100km in the leadup to Taupo. I headed off, not for the flats of Takanini this time, but the full-on hills towards Whitford and beyond.  I slogged up rise after rise, I ate, slogged and ate. Fortunately on the bike I usually see something to sidetrack me which makes the time go a little quicker, and this time was no different. After I got from Whitford to Alfriston, I did a loop taking me to the outskirts of Manurewa and back via Ardmore.  I found myself fascinated by a trail of shoes on the roadside. Now these weren't pairs of shoes, but countless individual shoes, some left, some right, heels, flat, strappy, all colours, and all looking about the same size. None matched that I saw, it was almost as though someone had taken one shoe from each of dozens of pairs and thrown them out of a moving vehicle at regular intervals. I was particularly captivated by one as I rode by, it was high heeled purple velvet with sparkly things on it. It lay forlornly on its side in the dust, decoration glittering feverishly in the sunlight, what could be the story behind that I wondered?  When I mentioned it to Kate, she suggested someone having an attack of spite, I mean, shoes are treasured possessions, who in their right mind would separate them and leave a trail around back roads in South Auckland unless they were sending a particularly vindictive message?  I wondered more prosaically if someone had knocked off a recycle bin, but it sure was a lot of shoes, and a lot of effort to make sure no two of the same were together.  An additional trip round the block and there was no answer to my important question of where was the second shoe of each pair, it will just have to remain a mystery, one of many I leave on the side of the road in my wanderings.

Anyway, 100 km, and a long 5 hours later I got home.  My back and shoulders were tight, my legs had chain grease on them, I wanted to divorce my bike-seat and I was tired and had a headache.  Then the question of importance was why do I do this to myself?

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