I agree, I think that he is frightened of change, and is looking for excuses not to, maybe he wants it to be perfect when he does move maybe it's that life goes on without the other person, and if he does go ahead and make this change, moving on, it means having to leave the other person and he wants to avoid making that descision by saying, i need new shoes for the race, etc, etc- maybe it's about having to grow up. At the end, he decides that it isn't worth running the race if it means losing this person. Just an idea.
I agree, I think that he is frightened of change, and is looking for excuses not to, maybe he wants it to be perfect when he does move maybe it's that life goes on without the other person, and if he does go ahead and make this change, moving on, it means having to leave the other person and he wants to avoid making that descision by saying, i need new shoes for the race, etc, etc- maybe it's about having to grow up. At the end, he decides that it isn't worth running the race if it means losing this person. Just an idea.