music

When it comes to music, I'm starting to sound like my father. Inevitable of course, that eventually I should catch myself shouting "Call that music?" almost every time I turn on the car radio. Of course, he was ranting about the Beatles, while I (usually) am ranting at rap, but the principle's the same.

But hey, it's not just me. The Play.com poll of Ipod users taken before the London marathon to find out what people were listening to while preparing and racing put two Queen tracks, Springsteen and the Stones in the top ten, backed by the theme from Rocky and "Eye of the Tiger".

This week's "get out and run" track that is working for me is

"What's left of the Flag" by Flogging Molly. Do not be fooled by the slow start... it is mad Irish crazy raucous!!!!!

Live performance version here. (Turn it up and jump around: excellent warm-up.)

You'll have to excuse the lyrics ("explicit"), but they mean well...

the track that's getting me out of the house at the moment is "Creamer (Radio is Dead)" by Limp Bizkit.

I'm inspired to ask you what music you're all listening to, to help you get out the door, or while you are training? What's hot?

Back in the late 80's when I first started running I vaguely recall trying to go out for a training run with a "walkman". For those of you who are under the age of 20, a walkman is a portable cassette player, and the first ones that came out were nearly the size of bricks (this was before Sony came out with that smaller, yellow sports-walkman that you could strap to your arm). Suffice it to say that the run went horribly because carrying the walkman was cumbersome and having to constantly fiddle with the buttons and wires made me miserable for the rest of the run.

After the Tucson Marathon last year, some friends and I were talking about how little the runners were talking to each other out on the course. We had all had those experiences in previous marathons where we made friends while covering the miles. But it seemed like people in marathons were talking to each other less and less.

We speculated on why that was, and the topic turned to headphones and earbuds.

In April I had the pleasure of running my first Boston Marathon, and was amazed by the crowds braving a Nor'easter to cheer, with incredible enthusiasm and energy, us marathoners.

Recently I ran a leg in the Big Sur Marathon Relay. I've run the full marathon at Big Sur twice, and the Relay four times. It's one of my favorite events.

So what do you think when a marathon bans iPods? Just noticed this news item about a Duluth marathon banning them for participants -- following a national trend. The story notes: "USA Track and Field recently enacted that ban for all sanctioned running events to increase participant safety."

Rather than a blanket ban, I think race organizers should make the decision. I ran a marathon in Fort Collins, Colorado, a couple years ago and listened to music. The race was small enough that there really was no safety issue, with runners pretty spread out not long after the start. As a 4-hour-plus runner, the music helped me keep my sanity.

On the other hand, at a really crowded race like the Bolder Boulder 10K (45,000+ runners) I can see the logic of a ban on headphones.

What do you think?

(Bobby Bostic: Did you listen to your iPod during the North Pole Marathon?)

I ran my first half marathon. The hogeye in fayetteville, AR. It's really strange to feel a sense of accomplishment after turning in a 2:15 and finishing 148th of 187. I'm proud to say I ran up all of the grueling hills passing people that would later beat me as they walked up them to conserve energy, but if I had walked they still would've beaten me and I wouldn't've felt as good about myself at the end. I'm sore today. Really sore, but I just want to go running some more.

The next part of this post I thought I'd talk about my favorite part at this besides finishing. I really enjoyed listening to the music I could hear coming out of other runners head phones, as I chose to leave my ipod in the car and run with the sound of my allergy wheezed breathing and my footsteps. Through the first 5 miles I was really with the pack and had at least 20 people around me. I began to wonder if they were listening to music (those that were) to keep themselves entertained? to give a rythem? to keep them pumped up? The first person I heard basically all I could hear was a guy riding a high hat. If that was all this guy was listening to I was kinda worried, because that would drive me insane after 2 hours. Next I was interested to hear something from one of my workout mixes that had the Black Eyed Peas "Pump It". There were a few more indistinguishable songs, and then along came "Justin Timberlake" lady. I was tempted to increase my pace or slow down until she passed just to get away. It's not that I don't enjoy sexy back or anything like that, I just didn't want to have this distraction. It kept happening though. I'd pass her... she'd pass me. Over and Over again.