100 Days of Wonder – #17

Special trainers deserve special retirements. It’s not every pair that carried me through a marathon… the memories, the sweat, the swearing. These trainers were there for all of it. And so they will forever roam the Magic Kingdom. Ok so obviously I know that’s not actually what happens to them but there is something really lovely about the thought and the ritual. I like little rituals and traditions. I like how they mark things, create moments of reflection, make me smile and mark the passage of time in a positive way. I like my ‘new academic year notebook’, usually supported by a ‘new calendar year notebook’ and a ‘Easter notebook’ because one is never going to be enough. I like the end of term email and file sorting to mark the end of one term and the start of the next. I like our own traditions that have developed over time that are ours, just things we do – like strolling across to the Magic Kingdom on our arrival evening, having dinner at the California Grill on our last night and lunch at the Crystal Palace before we fly home.

I like our traditional Christmas morning run, I like the pumpkin carving (coming up soon), mince pie baking, Christmas card writing and our 4 advent candles not in a circle but in a line. I like how our traditions have mixed and also how they have evolved. I remember our runs at Bolton Abbey followed by breakfast fondly, a lovely weekend ritual for a long time until the food options changed. I love our monthly cheese box and the way we curl up in front of the TV with our cheese board and fizzy apple juice once a month. I like our first coffee of the morning being one we have together often sitting in bed. I like our seasonal lego to build and rebuild year after year. Some of the rituals inspire a sense of possibility -new notebooks, candles to be lit, advent calendars to be opened (every other day because we share) – and others invite memories – do you remember last year when we build the Haunted Mansion… and others still, coffee in bed, cheese boards, are just about taking the time to be together.

While most trainers are either binned or passed on through various charities, depending on the state of them, the special ones started a new ritual, a runDisney ritual. It allows me to mentally close off that marathon, that training cycle and bank it. I can look forward to the next challenge and all the possibilities that might bring and I create memories – those rainbow laces could tell a story or two. I like it, I’ll keep it going: A shoe selfie in the Magic Kingdom and then the trainers are ‘retired’ at the Contemporary resort so they, and a little bit of me, will always be roaming the most magical place on earth.