I love my job.\u00a0 I mean, I really, really love my job.\u00a0 How many people can honestly tell you they love what they do for a living?\u00a0 For the most part, people go to work to earn a paycheck and go home.\u00a0 But I am in the rare position of actually, really, truly loving what I do.\u00a0 David, my boss and owner of all 3 FLEET FEET St. Louis stores, always says \u201cDo what you love, love what you do.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a good motto and I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do just that.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t just <\/i>love my job because I get to wear running clothes to work.\u00a0 Although that is a nice perk because A) It\u2019s a little like wearing pajamas all day, and B) I can leave work and immediately go for a run, which I am frequently known to do.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t just love my job because I get to try out all the new shoes and other cool running accessories as they come in.<\/p>\n
My dad always said, \u201cSurround yourself with good people.\u201d I can honestly say I\u2019ve done that, some of the people I work with have become like my family. That\u2019s just one more reason I love my job. Runners typically tend to be happy people (it\u2019s the endorphin high) so being around other runners all the time generally makes life better.\u00a0 Additionally, I share in the privilege of leading the weekly social run at the store, so I get to hang out with a bunch of sweaty runners who love pizza.\u00a0 Is there anything better than that?!<\/p>\n
The best part of my job, though, is the opportunity to encourage other people in a love of running.\u00a0 My favorite customers are the people who come into the store not really knowing why<\/i> they want to start running, they just know that they do.\u00a0 These are the customers who want to suck up all the knowledge and all the enthusiasm I can offer. \u00a0I don\u2019t claim to know all there is to know about running, not even close, but I do know that my passion for it is contagious.\u00a0 It is an absolute joy to work with people who have an open mind to the feeling of freedom and the rush of adrenaline that only a \u2018Runner\u2019s high\u2019 can provide.\u00a0 They are just about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, and they have no idea what\u2019s coming.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s always funny to me, the people who say, \u201cWell, I\u2019m not really a runner, I just run a couple miles at a time and I\u2019m really slow\u201d or \u201cI\u2019ve only run 1 half-marathon , so I\u2019m not actually a runner.\u201d\u00a0 Umm, yes, you are.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how far or how fast you run, if you lace up your running shoes on occasion and hit the trail or the road or the track for a 50-miler or 50 meters or anything in between, you are<\/b> a runner.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s March.\u00a0 In specialty running, that means track and field season.\u00a0 Despite my early exposure to running, and a life-long love affair with it, I actually have very limited personal experience in the area of track and field. \u00a0I ran track in Jr. High, but that was really before we got into all the technical equipment of spikes and such. \u00a0I only ran one season of Cross Country my freshman year of high school and when spring came around I went out for the softball team.\u00a0 I remember my dad taking me to buy my first glove.\u00a0 I still have that glove, it has never been replaced.\u00a0 But anyway, back to running. \u00a0My friend and co-worker, Barb, is the resident track expert at the store.\u00a0 As a former track coach, she has been incredibly helpful in assisting my efforts to learn the ins and outs of this particular niche of running.<\/p>\n
The other day, as I was talking with Barb about my minimal track experience, I began to recall a story.\u00a0 The very first race I ever remember running was the 400m dash at Field Day in 4th<\/sup> grade.\u00a0 If I remember correctly, there were 2 girls from each of the 7 or 8 fourth grade classes signed up for that event and our class held try-outs to see who would represent Mrs. Troster\u2019s room.\u00a0 I know I remember correctly when I say that for most of that race I was in dead last.\u00a0 But somehow, as we came up on the halfway mark, I started to pass some of the other girls.\u00a0 With 100m left I was in second place.\u00a0 And with just a few strides to go, I passed Kim Scott for the win.\u00a0 Talk about a high!\u00a0 Winning is awesome, but there is nothing better than a win like that.\u00a0 It was completely unexpected.\u00a0 When I got home from school later that day, I had a surprise waiting for me, from my dad; a congratulatory Snoopy balloon.\u00a0 I don\u2019t tend to be overly sentimental and keep a lot of stuff just for the sake of nostalgia, because I always say the thing is not the memory. I actually stole that line from Peter Walsh who hosted that show \u2018Clean Sweep\u2019 on HGTV. \u00a0Lindsey quirk #4-I am obsessed with chucking any unnecessary clutter in my life.\u00a0 But I\u2019m pretty sure that balloon is in a box somewhere at my mom\u2019s house. \u00a0I kept it because it\u2019s not just a deflated Mylar balloon. I kept it because of what it represents.\u00a0 It represents a Never give up attitude and a come from behind win. \u00a0But it doesn\u2019t just represent winning, because winning isn\u2019t always about being the first one to cross the finish line. \u00a0It represents a spirit in me that my dad celebrated all those years ago when he gave me that snoopy balloon.\u00a0 It represents the fact that even when I can see that things aren\u2019t going my way, I won\u2019t just give up and quit. \u00a0I won\u2019t roll over and die.\u00a0 I will fight to the finish. I am strong enough to push through and make a comeback.\u00a0 That wasn\u2019t the\u00a0only time in my life that I had to make a comeback, and it certainly hasn\u2019t been the most challenging, and I guarantee there will be more.\u00a0 I guess you can just call me the Comeback Kid, because the fact of the matter is that I won\u2019t ever quit, even when it\u2019s hard, I\u2019ll keep on pushing forward.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the spirit I hope to impart on every person that I put into a new pair of running shoes at FLEET FEET.\u00a0 It\u2019s just\u00a0too bad I can\u2019t send them all out of the store with a Snoopy balloon of their own.<\/p>\n
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