Ever since Nike opened a store in downtown Spokane, I’ve taken my old running shoes in for recycling. They accept not only Nikes, but any type and brand of athletic shoes. They are ground up and used in the construction of running tracks across the country.

While running past Shadle Park High School one day, I saw a sign stating the athletic field would soon close for construction of a new running track. Shadle Park is just a few miles from the Nike store. I intuited shoes from the store would be used in the track. I drew up an action plan to find out.

Using a pair of tin snips, I cut small pieces of metal from a tin can. I spread them atop the soles of a pair of old shoes and put them in the oven, upside down. I grabbed a chair and watched through the oven door as the hot steel chunks sank into the soft, gooey soles. After they cooled, I wrote my initials, JJ, in very dark ink all over the shoes, then took them to the Nike store for recycling.

When the track construction project finished up, I went there with metal detector in hand. I started with lane 1 and went all the way around. No signal. I did lane 2, and it was the same thing. It took over 3 hours, but at the beginning of the backstretch, in lane 5, my metal detector went off. Gently prying at the track, I found some metal chunks, and then I hit pay dirt—just visible were my tiny, handwritten initials.

Now that I know I’m a contributor to the track, I feel I have a right to be recognized. I’ve made an appointment to go in next week to petition school administration. I want to see the name of lane 5 at Shadle Park changed to Jim Johnson Lane at Shadle Park Running Track.