High School Runner Loses Shoe 1 Mile From Finish Line and Quits, Because What’s He Supposed to Do? Run With Just One Shoe?
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A runner competing in a 5000-meter track race over the weekend lost his shoe with just four laps to go and immediately stepped off the track, Dumb Runner has learned.
“My shoe came off,” said the runner, William Squier, 15, a student at Haislip High School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, upon quitting the race. “What was I supposed to do? Keep running with only one shoe on?”
Squier, who was just behind the race leader when he quit, said his left shoelace felt loose about halfway through the race and got progressively worse.
“Eventually, it became totally untied,” he said. “When the leader threw in a surge with, like, four laps to go and I tried to match it, the whole shoe just flew off.”
At that point, Squier said, his instincts took over.
“I quit,” he said. “I mean, I literally had no other option.”
Squier’s coach, Edgar Winter, applauded the move.
“William is not just a strong runner—at age 15, he’s also a shrewd tactician,” said Winter. “He knows intuitively when to move, when to hold back, and when to throw up his arms and just walk away.”
“I’m proud of his performance today.”
