Yesterday was Long Run Sunday in the Poconos, which meant Route 940, the Lake Naomi loop, and all the hills and headwind that go along with them. IPod to the rescue.
About a year ago I started rating all the songs in my iTunes library with the star system, because anything rated 4 or 5 automatically drops into the My Top Rated playlist (now 858 songs long). I rate about 200 songs a month, which keeps the mix relatively unpredictable. Re-sorting by varying criteria (alpha by song, descending alpha by album, etc) is an easy way to tease out coincidental meaning between songs and to bring some forgotten tracks into more frequent rotation. I recently re-sorted My Top Rated to ascend by track length, so this is the first time I’ve run to this playlist in this order. I randomly scrolled ahead a bit in the playlist to start, since I had a hunch that running the first half-hour to ditties under 2 minutes long (the first song, “Passive Manipulation” by the White Stripes, is a mere 35 seconds) would drive me batty. Without further ado, the soundtrack to Sunday’s 16-miler, grouped by rough mile markers.
Mile 1: “Attitude” by The Replacements, “Tired of Being Alone” by Al Green, “Triple Trouble” by The Beastie Boys, “Don’t Do Me Like That” by Tom Petty Mile 2: “Cinco de Mayo” by Liz Phair, “Both Sides of the Gun” by Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, “Cinnamon Girl” by Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs (remember her, The Bangles? Yum) Mile 3: “Thick N’ Thin” by The Black Crowes, “Good Times Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin, “Brain Damage” by The Waifs, “Into Your Arms” by The Lemonheads (“…safe and warm from the crowds….”) Mile 4: “Right Right Now Now” by The Beastie Boys, “Home” by Nothing, “Be My Yoko Ono” by Barenaked Ladies followed by, in a lyrical dialectic, “You’re the Reason I’m Leaving” by Franz Ferdinand… Mile 5: …with “Now She’s Gone” by Steve Earle ending the conversation. “I Should Never Have Let You Know” by Matthew Sweet (a nearly perfect argument for why everyone’s lovelier when you hardly know them), “For the Girl” by The Fratellis (Fast! Run fast!) Mile 6: “Don’t Believe a Word” by Ivy, “Supernova” by Liz Phair, “Tell Me ‘Bout It” by Joss Stone Mile 7: “White Riot” by Cracker (cover of The Clash’s song), “Supernova” by Liz Phair (yes, this is in here twice and I didn’t even notice until now), “Hash Pipe” by Weezer Mile 8: “Peaches” by The Presidents of the United States (for ED), “The Maestro” by The Beastie Boys, “Keep Fishin'” by Weezer Mile 9: “Arms of My Baby” by Joss Stone, “Getchoo” by Weezer, “Something So Strong” by Crowded House Mile 10: “I Remember You” by Steve Earle (the man has a knack for duets) ,”Cecilia” by Simon & Garfunkel (my single gal theme song), “The Way You Found Me” by Ben Harper, “First Date” by Blink 182 (oops this one’s a little embarrassing) Mile 11: “Rubber Biscuit” by The Blues Brothers, “Rendezvous” by Bruce Springsteen, “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Suede (any song which requires harmonic repetition of the word ‘ooga’ is tops in my book) Mile 12: “Blue” by The Thorns (this song makes me cry), “All You Need Is Hate” by The Delgados, “Mama’s Got a Girlfriend” (live) by Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals Mile 13: “The Girl from Ipanema” by Getz & Gilberto, “Grade 9” by Barenaked Ladies, “Poor Boy” by Steve Earle Mile 14: “Engraved Invitation” by Ben Harper (“I wish I was a thought, I’d run up through your mind.”), “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” by John Mellencamp (yes, I really did see him in concert), “Knock ‘Em Out” by Lily Allen (“Are you stupid or just kind of slow?”) Mile 15: “Way Down in the Hole” by Steve Earle, “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” by the Beatles, “Woman” by Wolfmother (I am a tough rocker chick!! Rrr!!) Mile 16.17: “Thorns” by The Thorns, “Another Nail in My Heart” by Squeeze, “Black Rain” by Ben Harper, “Roy Walker” by Belle & Sebastian
The numbers: 16.17 miles in 2:28:32. Average pace 9:11 (actual number of miles run at that pace = 0); fastest mile 8:53; slowest mile 9:46. Shortest song 2:43; longest song 2:57.
Pigtails Flying 
That’s a nice, eclectic list. I never listen to music when I’m running, but if I did, there’d probably be something even more embarassing than Blink 182 in there. 🙂
I ran with headphones today for the first time since my accident. For the first time, I went opera, the first part of Le Nozze di Figaro. Sublime stuff. But I wouldn’t do it on a regular basis. I’m more partial to soundtracks and recent female country.
[…] 17, 2009 by TK Sunday’s long run was the final step in sucking out the poison of the past two weeks. As the miles clicked by, I […]
I love that you know which mile you were on for each song.
That’s a really ecletic list. I’m not very open-minded when it comes to music. Hip-hop is my favorite but when it comes to working out, I tend to lean more towards pop and trance.