Trivia: When did the first issues of Distance Running News/Runner's World and Running Times come out?
SAVING SOLES. In December 1977 I had a pair of Tiger Jayhawks racing shoes resoled with a Nike waffle bottom. The result was cool and unique.

Resoling shoes, in its infancy then, did a good business from the late 1970s through early '90s. I returned from Seattle to Michigan and wrote to the company that did the work, Power Soler, about prices for its equipment. I had to invest about $3,500, which I didn't have, so I didn't pursue it. Several guys in the Ann Arbor area soon did.

Prior to '77, glue guns were advertised in Runner's World. The "gun" heated the "glue," which was then applied to worn areas on shoes. The glue worked generally well, but was hard.

Shortly after resoling arrived, Shoe Goo - rubber in a tube - became available. You simply squeezed the Goo onto the worn area and let it harden. If applied correctly it lasted a reasonable amount of time, and as it wore down you'd apply some more. Shoe Goo, which remains an inexpensive fix, now has urethane competition in Free Sole.

Resoling's popularity waned in the early '90s as major shoe makers started using their own trademark outsoles, including harder rubber at the back corner of the heel, point of highest impact. Today, outsoles are often broken up into pods, and what's just below them makes it equally hard or impossible to resole: lugs, cushioning devices, holes, etc.

Much of this info comes from my friend Steve Angerman, who started resoling in 1979, "when my teammates (at Eastern Kentucky University) and I would cut pieces of inner tubes and glue them on our shoe heels," he recalls.

"Eventually, I started cutting pieces of retired Nike waffles and supergluing them on shoe heels. There always seemed to be shoes drying out on our dorm windowsills," Steve continues.

"I saw an ad in Runner's World about a resoling kit one summer while working at the Phidippides running store in Dayton, Ohio. We bought the kit for $80 to serve our customers. It had a small space heater, sandpaper, drill-bit file, heavy-duty scissors, flat-nose pliers, rubber mallet, metal shoe tree, exacto knife and a can of barge cement.

"The kit's instructions: 'Set shoes on space heater; after three minutes peel the sole off with pliers when glue softens. Sandpaper the midsole's bottom to clean it up, trace the shoe bottom on a sheet of outsole material (not included), cut and cement on shoe. After dry, trim the excess outsole material.'

"It was OK for doing your own shoes, but a bit of a hack job to charge customers," Steve recalls.

His store bought some "real" resoling equipment from Bob Roncker in Cincinnati. "Soon I was up and running, resoling shoes for our store," Steve remembers. "I opened accounts with suppliers to get materials I needed, including patented Nike waffle outsoles. When I moved to Ann Arbor, I bought the equipment for $1,100 and started Sole Express.

"It took about an hour to resole one pair of shoes. With drying time required for the cement, the entire process took more than a day. It was more effective to work on a group of shoes in an assembly-line process. Fifteen to 20 pair a week could be done in about 20 total hours.

"I advertised in Michigan Runner, did mail-order and picked up shoes at drop-off locations in Ann Arbor. The peak years were 1985-87, when I could make about $300 to $400 a month. I couldn't see myself spending more time with resoling because it was a dirty, tedious and time- consuming.

"Vibram blown-rubber outsoles were very popular. They didn't last long but gave a soft ride. Heel replacements were popular and I could get outsoles more durable than shoe companies used.

"Lifts in shoes became a big part of my business; building up one shoe for people with leg-length discrepancies. These customers were very loyal, and at the end of my resoling days were my sole business (pun intended).

"Two funny asides: once I put a lift in the wrong shoe. Another time a customer sent me shoes for resoling; when I opened the box - PHEWW, he had obviously stepped in dog doo."

There are probably still places doing running-shoe resoling, but the salad days are long past.

RUNNING ON. I read a lot of running writing. Once in a while, a piece strikes a nerve. The following impressed me enough to seek permission from author Jen Thompson, a part-time worker who wrote it for the newsletter of the Running Fit store in Ann Arbor, to share it here: "I recently got married. Any woman who is honest with herself realizes, usually after the fact, this means big changes - and not in a bad way, just different.

"I was in the middle of another soul-searching run, pondering these changes, when something occurred to me. I have been a dedicated runner for 15 years. This is not an amazing amount of time; I know several people, including my parents, who have been running more than 30 years.

"What struck me was how many changes have occurred over 15 years. "During that time I have lived in eight different towns. I've had five jobs and two last names. I've been a student at three schools and a teacher at three more.

"I've been fatter and skinnier. I grew an inch taller. The only thing that has stayed the same is, about four mornings a week, I don running shoes (approximately 30 pairs in the last 15 years), slip out the front door and shuffle down the street.

"Through all life's emotional ups and downs, running has sustained me. When I heard my grandmother died, I went for a run. When I didn't get into graduate school the first and second times, and when I finally did the third time, I went for runs.

"I ran after I had my first date with my future husband, and when it looked like we might break up. I even went for a run Sept. 11, 2001, in that strange silence when nobody seemed to know what to do. That's what I did, and I am sure I was not alone.

"Every day I work here, I hear your stories. You come in looking for baby joggers, or to get rid of them. You're losing weight to look good for your reunion. You're trying to manage the stress of your first real job. You're coping with the pain of loss.

"In a few minutes I'm going to do it again: run another five miles of slow, steady strides in the steamy June air. Maybe today I'll be able to come to terms with what it means to be a 'wife,' or maybe I'll discover some new role or change that will need to be made. (Kids? Yikes!)

"Whatever happens, I know that tomorrow, the next day and next week, I'll still be running."

Answer: DRN/RW came out first in January 1966, and RT in January 1977. MR