The year was 2003, and Sean "Puffy" Combs, aka "Diddy," had made a pledge to run the NYC Marathon. As is his way, he made a campaign of it. "Diddy Runs the City" ads were up everywhere and the brand I was fronting at the time became a sponsor.
There was a banquet the night before the marathon. I went and sat at a VIP table. We all eagerly awaited the entrance of the man of honor, but he never showed. Booo... all the sponsors said. (Now I have a little bit more sympathy for the guy. He was probably home shitting himself!)
At the banquet, in lieu of goodie bags, there were special favors at each place setting - Nike running socks and a small gift box with instructions inside on how to order a pair of custom "Diddy Runs the City" Nike running shoes in your choice of color and, of course, size. I ordered the shoes eventually but, when they arrived, I promptly gave them away to a friend who was a runner and would wear them. What need had I for running shoes? Blech.
The socks have floated around. First they went into the sock drawer I shared with "J." All our socks were merged along with everything else. When we split, I took half the workout socks, half the dress socks, half the wool winter socks, and made sure not to leave him with anything pink. I ended up with both pairs of our "Diddy" socks. I never wore them because they were so thin, and black, and went up the ankle too high for me. I figured they were men's socks and, anyway, I like a lot of padding. When I did the sorting I suppose I wasn't in the best state of mind; I might have paid better attention and left them behind.
Today, I found myself out of socks. Completely. No idea how that happened. Did I leave a load in the dryer some time? My only choice was the Diddy Nike socks. They were brand new and still had the tags on. Well, why not? Good enough for Diddy, good enough for me, right?
So, I ran my 6 miles in the pretty Park this morning. I walked a ton. I stopped and stretched for 5 minutes after 2.5 miles. It wasn't exactly a stellar performance; but by mile 5, I was cruising and things in my right foot didn't hurt as much as they had on Saturday, so I felt pretty good. The only thing that felt really bad was... my left foot! The one that always used to give me trouble with blisters and bleeding.
When I got home I took my shoes off and found my left paw a bloody, blistered mess. The thin Diddy socks had not been adequate padding for my fragile tootsies. Instead of just soaking my right foot, I put both in, and wondered what Diddy's run might have been like. I've actually looked his results up in the last year. I'd always wondered if he'd really finished but hadn't known you could check anyone's results (Katie Holmes included, if you're so inclined to snoop) on the NYRR.ORG website. He did finish and with a respectable time. That man is a machine. After today I'd be curious to know if he wore this same style of Nike socks for the marathon; I am guessing not!
Time to do laundry and get my gear lined up for my next run on Wednesday. 7 miles. Never again in Diddy's socks...
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