it's always darkest before the dawn

I don't have much to talk about lately other than my upcoming race (SATURDAY!! AHH!!!). And let's be honest—it's pretty much the only thing on my mind right now. I have sufficiently psyched myself out—have I trained enough? am I eating the right food? is it normal to feel like I'm running with bricks in my shoes?

Don't answer that.

Anyway, one of my favorite running pastimes is putting together a playlist of music to listen to while I'm running. I love music, I sometimes love running, it only makes sense that they should go hand in hand. I've got my music mixology down to a science—the burst of energy for intro, the slow buildup, the climax, and the eventual end of the run. I have songs for all running occasions. Short runs, long runs, runs that turn into walks because you're over it... you name it! This makes the whole thing worthwhile for me. If you end a run on a good song, well, it's like you're walking/running on sunshine.

I also believe that the iPod can do lots of the work for you, with a little help from the music gods. The anticipation of finding out the song that's going to come next is so exciting. (Please let me be a dork about this—I realize it all looks very silly written out.) And it seems that my shuffle knows when to play the right songs. My favorite song to end on is "All These Things That I've Done" by the Killers and about 80% of the time, that's where the shuffle takes me. All you need to do is watch this video to understand why this is the best song to push you to the finish line:

Did I just cry a little? Sure did. I'll probably watch it a dozen more times before the race just to sufficiently prepare for my Prefontaine-esque dash across the finish line.

Moving on.

I like to divide my songs into genres. Generally speaking, my favorites consist of the "beat so intense you feel like someone is chasing you in a movie" genre, the "anthem" genre, and the "why don't I just stop on this corner and dance instead?" genre. (I often throw in a couple of songs from the "songs too slow to run to but they have a motivational beat and/or lyrics" genre, but sometimes that slows me down.) Combine these three and you've got the most fun run you've ever been on.

I do have good intentions to post my Ultimate Playlist someday. (I know I keep promising, I'm just a jerk—and I don't really know how to share music without posting YouTube videos?) In the meantime, I'll leave you with my recent favorite running song—the perfect combination of inspiration and hot beats to get me through a long run:

In closing, I'd like to say thank you for humoring me by reading this post (if you actually did). I'm sure it was completely boring to some (most) people. Also, please tell me your best running and/or motivational song, because I'm always accepting submissions.