16. 10 Songs You Can Listen To While You're Running

The Loneliness of the Middle Distance Runner - Belle and Sebastian
Roadrunner (Once) - Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
Keep on Running - Spencer Davis Group
Run for Me - Richard Hawley
Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
No Distance Left to Run - Blur
Run Run Run - The Velvet Underground
Run - Snow Patrol
Running Girl - Ooberman
Run - Stephen Fretwell

People run for different reasons. I'm not really sure why I run. To not get fat. To take a break from work. To still feel young. To be able to run faster. Those are some reasons some people run. I did a lot of running last year, always listening to music, culminating in a somewhat disastrous Chicago Marathon in 30 degrees - and not listening to music. My running was shortly after that curtailed by a broken leg, but the second half of the marathon was way more ghastly and unbearable than breaking my leg.

I was fast in the months before the marathon. Fast and mildly obsessive about getting faster. Now i'm getting back to my running after breaking my leg, even after a month, I'm still straining every sinew in my body to run significantly slower than I could run 6 months ago without even drawing breath. But it feels great to be running again. And truthfully, one of the main reasons I run is because if you're listening to the right song on the right day, running at the right speed, it is a marvellous marvellous feeling. These are good running songs, i guess, though a bit pun-based.

Songs I really like to run to are Sons and Daughters by The Decemberists and You Got Your Cherry Bomb by Spoon.

Some people say running is a really good time to chew over thoughts and make decisions. Haruki Murakami has written a book (which I've only read snatches of) called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running.

Well to take off that in a haiku style

What I think about,
if I think, when I'm running,
is running. Running