Half-Marathon Anthem

Lots of love during and after the half-marathon this weekend, many thanks for it. The race itself was fine, more fun than it had any right being, especially with how perfect the weather was on Sunday. Questions of speed and time come up every now and then, "yes" to both, there were moments of speed and it took a good amount of time, but I'm less interested in the clock right now than I am in the mission ahead—building the perfect marathon playlist.


I don't train with music, most of my workout runs are as much mental exercise as anything else so staying in my head is important, but having a soundtrack for running outside on a nice day just makes it more fun and I want one for November. I wound up putting together Sunday's playlist Saturday afternoon, so it's a little repetitive on certain bands and definitely not where it needs to be come the big day,¹ but outside of some bookend technical difficulties it got the job done.

Starting Line

The idea was to hold back early and practice better pacing. This was going to be a slow and serene build up to something bigger, clearly the right place to channel my inner Coach Taylor with some "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts," can't lose with Explosions in the Sky followed by some table-setting instrumental. Unfortunately I was on the bathroom line when the starting gun went off, and after scrambling to the back of the herd I accidentally hit the wrong mix as I crossed the sensors. You know those people you see driving with an Egg McMuffin in one hand, a cup of coffee in the other, while texting, tweeting, and taking a selfie? That was me juggling my water bottle and ill-fitting iPhone case (accidentally threw the good one in the laundry) trying to get my crap together for the first quarter-mile. Mission eventually accomplished:

So Long, Lonesome—Explosions in the Sky
Auto Rock—Mogwai
Eruption—Van Halen
Amazing Grace—Dropkick Murphys
Right Now—Van Halen

Right off the bat, two VH picks up front is a little suspect, but "Eruption" always pairs with something so I thought it would work. I've actually kicked off every running workout for the past seven years with those first three, but in hindsight "Right Now" should have followed "Auto Rock," followed by the Dropkick Murphys, and then "Eruption." Back to "Amazing Grace" for a moment, who knew right? Just a reminder that even the secular heathens among us are still good for a little grace and faith as long as they know where to look. I've already told Erica that the Murphys' instrumental cut is a must-have for my funeral playlist—anyone reading this in attendance, I don't care if at that point you're all in your nineties and off your meds, do smile for me when the Wrath of Khan bagpipes give way to the guitar.

Keeping Up

Closing in on the end of mile two, this is usually the point where all of the parts start working the way they're supposed to, but I really want to keep things dialed down until at least the middle third of the race so I need something fun but not too exciting. This is going to be the section of the actual marathon mix requiring the most work, as I think I want to maintain a lower gear until at least mile-8.²

Surrender—Cheap Trick
Seven Nation Army—The White Stripes
Lose Yourself—Eminem
Walk—Foo Fighters
Jesus of Suburbia—Green Day

Going Cheap Trick here makes sense, it's cynically uplifting and forever linked to the image of Conan O'Brien running cross country from Late Night to The Tonight Show, while The Stripes and Eminem both work for the lyrical themes alone. Beyond being a fun song, "Jesus of Suburbia" is good for an easy mile from start to finish because of the length. "Walk" should have been the last of these four, as the change in tempo works better for picking things up at the end of this leg.

Awkward Shadow Boxing Might Be Happening

Back at the middle of Mile-Marker Four some awful person with all the skill of a true Long Island driver³ cut across four lanes of running traffic to get some water, forcing me to stop short and let loose an absolutely guttural f-bomb as my right knee cried out for vengeance.⁴ The closest remedy I could provide was LL Cool J, who makes me thankful that I run alone as "Mama Said Knock You Out" always inspires me to put my lack of coordination on display by punching the air in motion. With regained composure, it was obvious that "Go Faster" needed to be at the end of this stretch, and no surprise that everything else was lyrically on the nose, although "Feast and the Famine" was probably one Foo too many.

Mama Said Knock You Out—LL Cool J
Go Faster— The Black Crowes
Keep It Up—Soul Asylum
How Far We've Come—Matchbox Twenty
The Feast and the Famine—Foo Fighters

My Chemical Running Mate

Lots of MCR in the stretch ahead, too much for good form but here's where in every sense the pace got picked up and the faster beat helped make that happen.⁵ It's also where I got lazy in the mix-building, so lots of other playlists got added to the high energy salad course. Of note is Metallica's first appearance and one of the few worthwhile tracks off of Green Day's Uno!, Dos!, Tre! contract burn-off albums.⁶

Let Yourself Go—Green Day
Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)—My Chemical Romance
Mind Your Manners—Pearl Jam
Through The Never—Metallica
Slave to the Grind—Skid Row
Planetary (GO!)—My Chemical Romance
All My Life—Foo Fighters
DESTROYA—My Chemical Romance

This part of Sunday's race is also where the on-ramp to the Wantaugh State Parkway decided to make an appearance. The thing about on-ramps is that they're ramps, it's right there in the name, so it comes as no surprise that they incline like a champ. There may have been another out-loud F-bomb dropped right around here,⁷ this one under my breath and in awe of this rising concrete pain in the ass that was parked right in the middle of the heart of my race route and just as I was starting to finally pick up some speed. That said, the mile after the on-ramp was one of my two best.

Run Like Hell

No Floyd, but by design this is where a final pick-me-up was required and most welcome. Regardless of playlist etiquette there was definitely a call for more Maiden—a situation already addressed as part of the updated soundtrack to the next long run. Also, Teenage Bottlerocket. I never listened to them growing up, but my feet thank them for their support.

Stupid Games—Teenage Bottlerocket
Desolation Row—My Chemical Romance
Got the Time—Anthrax
Kickstart My Heart—Motley Crüe
Last Caress/Green Hell—Metallica
You Could Be Mine (Live)—Guns N' Roses
The Number of the Beast—Iron Maiden
Thunderstruck—AC/DC

Second-best mile during this stretch, credit the music and the nice man giving out gel-pack samples either out of the goodness of his heart or to market a product. I've already forgotten who made the vanilla cake batter concoction that I inhaled at the beginning of Mile 11, but it definitely had some Gummy Berry juice-like properties in its effect. More of these might be in order.

Running On the River

I've already written about my kind-of-weird river connection here, so this is pretty much where all races end. Some restraint was employed in not getting too cute and going crazy with the whole songs-that-reference-rivers thing,⁸ which was good today as my pre-race fumbling put my mix behind schedule, leading to final mile hi-jinks as I tried to advance the list to the predesignated last song.

The River is Wild—The Killers
I Am a River—Foo Fighters

Thunderstruck and the Killers were both cut on the spot as a result of poor planning, their sacrifice will be repaid on future runs. Over-thinking the situation instead of enjoying the moment, I double-backed on the Foo Fighters during the last mile just to make sure it got me through the end, but I did it too early and wound up shorting the mix by about a quarter mile. Like all things training related, we'll just file the mental stumble and the list as a whole under "work in progress."

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1 Also unforgivably missing "The Trooper."^↩
2 Eminem approves.^↩
3 I can say that now.^↩
4 So much for secular grace.^↩
5 At least so far as my rhythmically-challenged self understands the concept.^↩
6 No idea if this is actually what they were doing, but it seems like the only possible answer to "Why release one decent album when you can toss out three mediocre ones at the same time other than to screw over your label, who, in fairness, probably screwed you over first?"^↩
7 There was.^↩
8 Proud Mary, Travelling Riverside Blues, Big River, Green River, Dam that River, etc...^↩