Welcome to September, a month where #2 pencils and fresh notebooks hold all the promise of a new year. Instead of celebrating school supplies, we’re going to celebrate our gear this month: The most sentimental or memorable piece of gear, the one that makes you smile when you pull it on—or think about it.  Today’s piece is by April Hopkins. ( Read our previous posts here.)

In 2006, I was placed on a month-long waitlist for the elusive hot pink Apple iPod Nano. I finally got the call from Target and decided to browse the iPod accessories while there. I saw the Nike+ pod that fit in a shoe to track your runs. (It had a Bluetooth component that could only be used with an iPod Nano). I had been running for about three years at that point, and I had never even used a watch to track my runs. I bought it immediately and decided it would turn me into a “serious” runner.  

The Nike+ pod tracked mileage and pace and announced each mile as it was completed. I plugged my iPod into my computer after each run and uploaded the data  onto the Nike website. I was able to look at my pace and mileage, and, like Strava, you could add friends and see who was at the top of the leaderboard. It was a whole new world for me to see all the data and compete with friends, and I absolutely loved it.

In the spring of 2007, Nike announced a virtual half-marathon that coincided with the San Francisco race in October. Nike provided a training plan to use with your Nike+, and after you finished and uploaded your run, sent a  finisher’s T-shirt and Tiffany keychain. At that point, I had done several 5ks and ran a few times a week, but never more than 4 to 5 miles at a time. 

In 2007, running a virtual race was unheard of, and nobody understood what I meant when I told them about it, but it didn’t matter to me because I loved having a plan to follow—my first ever—and a goal to achieve.

I trained through the summer of 2007 with my nano and Nike+. At the end of my runs, I would be congratulated by different pro athletes. Paula Radcliffe was one, but pre-scandal Lance Armstrong was my favorite! He was in his running era and would announce what a great job I did at the end of my hardest runs. 

On a cool race day,  I went out to my local bike path early in the morning with a friend who biked next to me. I ran until I got the audio cue that I was at the halfway mark, turned around, and finished. There was no fanfare or medal, but I completed it, and I felt good. A couple of weeks later, my finisher shirt and Tiffany keychain arrived. I kept the keychain on my keyring until it broke a few years ago.

Nike+ took me from being a very amateur runner to the beginning of my half-marathon journey. I have run several since then, and while I am now partial to using AMR’s training plans, I will forever look back fondly at the summer of 2007, training for the Nike+ half-marathon with Lance Armstrong in my ear.