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| My mother bought a pair of size 11 Wilson red leather spikes, several sizes too big, but my mother was happy that there was plenty of room for my feet to grow. |
The meet drew athletes
from all the military base schools in Europe; the biggest schools were in
Germany and England. In the prelims alone, I realized how good the competition
was. I had to run a school-record 1:59.2 just to advance to the finals, the
lone member of our team to get past the semis.
A coach from one
of the larger schools in Germany told my coach how impressed he’d been with my
effort. Then he saw my spikes.
“You ran under
two minutes in those?”
They were a pair
of Wilson red leather spikes that my mother had bought for me in California three
years before, when I was a freshman. The salesman had measured my feet and said
I should buy size 11. The shoes felt big at the time, but my mother was happy
that there was plenty of room for my feet to grow and encouraged me to get them.
Not, of course, that she was having to run in them.
“They’re far too
big for him,” the coach said.
Indeed, I was
about to run the European finals in a boardy, heavy, over-sized pair of spikes.
(In college, I would wear size 9 or smaller.)
“Give me a
minute,” the coach said.
He soon returned
with a beautiful pair of blue and white Adidas spikes.
“Try these.”
It was my
introduction to shoes, something my life would soon revolve around. I had no
idea what a difference a pair of shoes could make. They were light and snug; I
felt faster just putting them on.
I won the 800 in 1:56.3,
three seconds faster than my previous best the day before and a new record for
European high schools for US military kids.
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