The Apple iPod is no longer in production, and runners everywhere are feeling the pinch, declaring their love for the technology on social media. We too feel your pain.
I don’t remember the shoes I wore when I ran the Boston Marathon in 2012. I don’t remember my shorts and can’t recall what shirt I was wearing. I know it was hot outside and I know I gave the race away within the first ten kilometres and I know that the fault was all mine, that there was no problem with anything I was wearing. My watch worked. My shoes were terrific. My shirt wicked just fine. I just had nothing left in me after 10K. I went out too fast. Trained too much. Cramped up quickly. And was walking before I hit Heartbreak Hill. Then I turned on my iPod.
I have one of those little iPods that connects to your shorts and comes with a chord that always gets tangled. When I ordered my iPod whenever that was, 2004, maybe? I was able to get a free inscription and I wrote: “Julie T and the Diamond Explosions,” which I always thought would be a cool name of a band for my wife. When the race was lost and I was on the verge of crying—no lie, I’d trained for Boston for months, made the trip with my young family and now, here I was, walking the world’s most famous racecourse in the sun, the day was nearly lost. And then something very peculiar happened. I made up my mind not to let it be. I had my health. I had my family. I was in Boston! I reached into the back pocket of my New Balance shorts and pulled on my iPod and turned on Pearl Jam, doing Nothing As it Seems, loud and live.
I straightened my back. Wiped off my brow. And slowly began to jog. Then play air guitar. Then run, collecting high fives for my efforts as I reclaimed my morning. I don’t have those shorts anymore. Certainly don’t have the sneakers. But I’ll be back on the course in Boston some day. With my Julie T iPod in my pocket, ready—come hell or high water—to control my destiny.
Apple, the iPod isn’t just a piece of technology. It’s a piece of our lives.
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