Jiggy's sneakers

Oh gosh, his teammates gave him merciless grief for wearing them to practice, wearing them out on runs. They appeared to be air conditioned because they were so beat up. They looked like a pair of lawn mowing sneakers that the dog used as a chewy toy. Finally, mercifully, Jiggy (aka sophomore John Ignacz) retired these sneakers. Jiggy is one of THOSE guys. Perhaps you know them. They run in minimalist shoes, and they try their darnedest to make them even more minimalist by wearing down the rubber, methodically, each day, with high-mileage training. They wear them well beyond the prescribed 300 to 500 miles – we estimate that these retired ragamuffin sneakers had close to 2,000 miles on them! And, in a nod to Chris MacDougall’s seminal work, “Born to Run,” going minimalist and wearing sneakers down to threadbare cushioning did not send Jiggy to the athletic training room. The kid does the highest mileage on the team. And he doesn’t get hurt. He’s durable. About as durable than these finally retired sneakers.