'The only time they walked was all over my feelings' - Shoeshant Walkenrun

My short life so far has had many ups and downs - the conveyor belt at the factory contributed to most of these ups and downs - but my life is quite stable at the moment. Shoutout to our sturdy shoe rack! My name is Shoeshant Walkenrun, and I’m a pair of running shoes, an expensive pair of shoes in fact, but I’m notably humble. Or so any shoe would be if it were lying on a shoe rack for months without even the slightest human contact.

Ground Control to Major Tom

Take your protein pills and put me on!

Still no sign of human life. Well, enough of wallowing in self-pity. Let me tell you an interesting fact about shoes! As you might have noticed before that shoes come in a pair. Does that make you wonder which shoe is communicating with you right now? Right or left? It's both! You see, all shoes suffer from 'Split Body Disorder', which is similar to 'Split Personality Disorder'. But instead of multiple personalities in a single body, shoes have the same personality in multiple bodies. Now, let’s backtrack to my story.

My life did not turn out as I expected it to be…

Please don’t start reminiscing about past decisions that you regret and definitely don’t have an existential crisis. This is a tale of my struggles and overcoming atrocities.

It all started on a fine day when a nervous looking spectacled man entered the showroom. I was chilling on the shelf with other shoes when my buddy Mikey pointed out that this guy was looking for a pair of running shoes. Although, I wasn’t so sure. He did not look like someone who worked out often or at all. But to my surprise, the sales executive accompanied him to our section. I don’t know how Mikey does it, but he just does it!

So, this guy starts going through the shelf and tries on different shoes one after the other. And guess what? He ended up picking me! The man had good taste, and that marked the first day of a new adventure in my life. The first couple of months with him were great. He often took me out on a run, and I believed he was going to pass out at any moment, but he kept at it and kept improving over time.

But he was human after all, and not all stories have a happy ending. His motivation was eventually undone like my laces. He kept me on that nice looking sturdy shelf and just… vanished.

No more running

No more walks

I’m sitting on a shelf next to clogs

WHAT ARE THOSE!

Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. I kept sitting on that shelf wondering if I was being selfish. Maybe he was busy with work and needed time to get back to his old schedule until I heard him watch TV for six hours straight, stuffing his mouth with God knows what over the weekend.

And you thought GoT Season 8 was disappointing! Pffft….

At that moment, I thought I was done for. I was destined to sit on that shoe rack for all eternity.

But the next day out of nowhere both of us ended up walking 6310 steps!

You didn’t see that coming, did you? Neither did I because I don’t have eyes.

Also, If you are wondering whether I counted all the steps he took, then I absolutely did not. He bought a fitness tracker called GOQii. And let me tell you one thing, this GOQii guy never misses a step. Like never! He is always watching me… always. Kind of creepy but also kind of cool since it motivates my walking buddy quite a bit. So, GOQii told me that my walking buddy has participated in the #IndiaStepsChallenge that will last for 100 days. I was sceptical at first, but he completed the challenge successfully and even won really cool prizes!

The #IndiaStepsChallenge concluded a few days ago, but my walking buddy hasn’t abandoned the challenge yet. The big prize he is aiming for is his health and GOQii is, as usual, keeping a close eye on me, but I don’t mind because health is wealth and no clog company for me.

#IndiaStepsChallenge has increased India's daily step count from 4297 steps to 8637 steps! Kerela and Tamil Nadu were the frontrunners with a daily average step count of 12,200+ steps a day, closely followed by Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Chandigarh of close to 12,000 steps daily!

But we won't let them leave us behind. If they do 12,000 steps, then I and my walking buddy will do 20,000 steps...like not today or tomorrow but eventually.

Take your 6000 steps towards a healthy life. Download the GOQii App here: www.goqii.com/app

This is a partnered post.