Why "Ragged Cap Runner"?

   Why the name "Ragged Cap Runner", you ask?
    It  does seem like an oddly inappropriate moniker for a running blog, I'd be the first to admit.
   The name came to me perhaps over a year ago as I was writing a blog post and I wanted to end the post off with a fairly flippant, toss-away line to describe myself. I happened to be looking at a picture of me wearing the cap I almost exclusively wore at the beginning of my running career. I saw a runner who was wearing a ragged cap and, all of the sudden, "ragged cap runner" popped into my head. And I kinda liked it!

The cap, before it became "ragged"!

   I never thought about it much after that, but as I became more and more dissatisfied with calling my blog "Strides", the more and more "Ragged Cap Runner" seemed to appeal. Hence the switch.
   Here's why it's actually an appropriate title.
   I identify with that old, sweat-stained, torn-up cap. It is rough around the edges in much the same way that I am, at this stage of my life. I'm in my sixties now and and have lost some of the lustre we all lose as we age. I've got aches and pains I never used to have, loose skin has appeared, wrinkles abound and the skin is marked. The legs are generally willing but they sometimes struggle with a mind that is not. And vice-versa.
   It's a body which has seen much and done much, though, and the ragged cap symbolizes all of that. It has seen a lot of golf, it has seen a lot of sand and it has seen a lot of blistered and nicked fingers. It has traveled most of the way across Canada. Like me, it is old and tattered. But you know what? It still works fine and so do I!

My Running Room Experience and My Superpower: Part One

   Last week was my birthday and I got a bunch of Running Room gift cards so I thought I would head downtown to our local RR and get me some new kicks.
   I had already been on their website and had an idea of what shoes I wanted to try on but I really had my heart set on trying a pair of Asics Gel-Nimbus 15 LS. The last pair of Asics I had were pretty comfy, I think this is why I was gravitating to another pair. I also liked the colour scheme presented.
   When I got there, just shortly after 11:30 a.m., the store...was closed! There was just a sign on the door, one of those "Sorry, be right back" affairs. There was another gentleman already there waiting and the two of us ended up having quite a nice little chat (when you're both runners, there's that instantaneous connection!)


The shoe I was after...

  


   We were out there in the cold for about ten minutes when someone finally came and opened the door for us, from inside the store.
   I immediately headed over to the wall of shoes and found the Gel-Nimbus 15 LS shoes. Here is where things started to break down for me. They sort of looked like the shoes I remembered from the website but not quite. They were, however, clearly marked on the wall as the Gel-nimbus 15 LS. I also knew I wanted to try on the Gel-Nimbus 15's (minus the LS, which is only a reflective colouring difference). These were clearly marked on the wall as well so I tried them on. I also tried on some Brooks, Mizuno, Saucony and New Balance, as was my plan. Still, I gravitated back to the Gel-Nimbus 15 LS. And still I was bothered by the fact that they just didn't look quite like what I remembered from the website. I asked the young man who was helping me if they came in any other colour or pattern and he assured me that, no, they didn't.
   So I ended up buying them anyway, after I got the word on what the return policy was.
   I drove them home and immediately got back on the website. This is when I found out what had happened. My trip back to the store then confirmed it for me.
   The staff from the store had erroneously stocked the Gel-Nimbus 15 shoe on the wall where the Gel-Nimbus 15 LS was supposed to be. A completely different Asics shoe was in the spot where the Gel-Nimbus 15 was supposed to be. The Gel-Nimbus 15 LS wasn't even on display! The young man very sheepishly corrected things and went into the back room and came out with a Gel-Nimbus 15 LS, the shoe I had originally been looking for but that hadn't even been on display!
   This was not a confidence booster but at least I finally had my eyes on the shoe I really wanted. Next catch? Nothing in my size! (I would tell you what my size is but you know what they say about a man with small feet...) The young lady

...and its impostor!

working there said she would call around and see if any other RR's in the area had a pair. Fortunately, there were a bunch of them in Waterloo and they are currently being shipped to London.
   The girl then mentioned that when they came in all I would then have to do is pay the difference in cost between the regular Gel-Nimbus 15s and the LS model, about ten bucks.
   I looked at her and said "Really? You would charge me the extra ten dollars after your mistake here in the store really screwed me up and made me have to come all the way back??"
   She did look kind of sheepish and mumbled something about how it would screw up the inventory if they didn't charge the extra.
   Now, here is the real reason for me writing this blog post.
   What I really wanted to say to this young woman was "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM, YOUNG LADY? I AM A CANUCK RUNNING BLOGGER AND WHEN I GET HOME I'M GOING TO WRITE A BLOG POST ABOUT ALL THIS AND RUNNERS FROM ACROSS CANADA AND THE U.S. ARE GOING TO READ IT AND SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE HOBNOB WITH GUYS LIKE JOHN STANTON AND BART YASSO AND THEN YOU'LL BE SORRY!!"
   But I didn't say that because, well, that just ain't Brian Baker, folks. But it does occur to me that running bloggers aren't just your ordinary customer, are they? It's more than likely that they already know what they're doing when they walk into a running store, could probably be working there themselves as a matter of fact, and could probably even label the shoes correctly. But, more than that, we have an audience!
   Word of mouth is valued by retailers and who has more word of mouth potential than a runner who also blogs about it? We certainly talk about our shopping experiences among our friends and acquaintances but then we also sit down and share that with North America! We blog and we tweet and we share and re-tweet and re-share and some of it ends up on Pinterest and some of it ends up on Instagram and tons of it ends up on Facebook. And I know I just said North America but we get pageviews from all over the world, don't we?
   I would almost liken us to a food critic walking into a restaurant. Whether the experience is bad or the experience is good, the world will find out. You don't get that with the average customer.
   So I really toyed with the idea of at least casually mentioning that my experience there could likely end up in print sometime soon, just to see if they might re-consider charging me the extra ten dollars when the shoes come in. In reality, given that I live about 12 kilometers away from the store and that I've already made two round trips and am looking at another one when the shoes come in, I'm looking at travelling 72 kilometers for a pair of shoes I should really have only made one trip for.
   Of course, I could also do a better job of making sure of what I'm after when I shop and that I simply don't leave with something I'm having reservations about. I've also never had anything like this happen any other time I've shopped at that RR, so I'm also (in spite of my heavy-handed posturing above) not keen on making waves, I have no great desire to be persona non grata the next time I go in there. It's not even really about the piddly ten bucks either.
   No, more than anything, I find myself trying to come to grips with this whole writing thing, like somehow or other it feels like a superpower or something or at least, given that we have this audience, a facet of ourselves which sets us somewhat aside (certainly not above) from other people we might run into.
   Where I work, occasionally something needs to be written and written well. Generally I am the person who gets asked to do that. I take that as a compliment (and as a bit of a chain around my neck sometimes) that people have recognized this ability in me. What comic books have taught me is that with great power comes great responsibility. I must use my superpower wisely. Stay tuned to see if I do!