Tag Archives: running playlist

Happy Valentine’s Day.  I’m not sure what this “holiday” celebrates, so I went to Wikipedia, my source of all information.  The entry was long and talked about a lot of dead people … so I quickly lost interest.  The gist of it is that we can blame Chaucer for associating the date with romantic love.  I think we can blame Roman and/or Greek mythology for the creepy naked boy armed with an arrow. 

Today this palooza of heart shaped gift giving is just another excuse for a themed playlist.  The list is not particularly romantic – in song lyrics people tend to run away from love or run around on their partners – but it is about running + love.  With a decidedly dark twist. 

Disclaimer - my playlists are -in a word- embarrassing, but even with my very low standards most of these songs are still too horrible to make my cut.  Download at your own risk.      

Warming Up:

• Billy Ocean – Caribbean Queen.  She dashed by me in painted on jeans.  Perhaps not the recommended attire for running, but at least she’s moving quickly.   No more love on the run. 
• Eddie Rabbitt – You Can’t Run from Love.   In a  song with approximately three different lyrics the message is clear:  you can’t run from love.  But if you need to get in 30K anyway, maybe it’s worth a try.
• The Temptations – Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me).   This is sports psychology.  Imagine running.  Or running away with someone.  Either way, you are moving forward in a speedy manner.
• Enrique Iglesias - Escape.  You can run you can hide but you can’t escape my love.  Yikes.  Take up ultramarathons and outlast the stalker.
• Janet Jackson – Runaway.  Runaway with me my love.  She starts out strong, but then goes on to inform, no need to hurry.  Dear Ms. Jackson: running does have an element of hurry.  This isn’t stroll away with me my love.
• Lionel Richie – Running with the Night.  Finally, a couple that enjoys a run together.  We were running with the night, playing in the shadows, just you and I until the morning light.  It’s an odd time for a workout, but I’ve procrastinated my way to a few midnight runs.

Getting the job done:

• Jimmy Buffett – You Call it Jogging, I Call it Running Around.  The soles of your running shoes they ain’t wearing down.  While you’re out running up and down the streets.  Whatever gets your heart rate up.
• Dixie Chicks – Ready to Run.  What’s all this talk about love?  I’m ready to run.  So simple.
• Steve Miller Band – Take the Money and Run.  According to recent news reports, endurance training can take a toll on relationships.  The couple that runs together stays together?  They headed down south and they’re still running today.
• Heart – Who Will You Run To?  I think this is a classic finish line song – who will you run to when it all falls down?  Who’s gonna wipe away the tears when you cry?
• Dion and the Belmonts – Runaround Sue.  She took my love then ran around with every single guy in town.  Paula Radcliffe mostly runs with men.  Like Paula, perhaps Sue is just too fast for the ladies. 
• Justin Bieber – Runaway Love.  You see my baby up and hit the road.  I’m running out of time.  He’s not even old enough to drink in Quebec.  Or run some marathons. 
• Sammy Hagar - The Girl Gets Around.  If you are going to tramp around you might as well log base miles. Good god this girl gets around.
• The Supremes – You Can’t Hurry Love.  I think the Supremes were endurance athletes.  Or maybe their mammas ran marathons.  Mama said, mama said.  You gotta trust, give it time, no matter how long it takes.  But it ain’t easy.
• Crystals – Da Do Ron Ron.  I know, the word is ron not run but it’s an easy substitution and I’m desperate for songs.  Picked me up at seven and he looks so fine, da do run run run da do run run.  Catchy.
• Martha Reeves and the Vandellas – Nowhere to Run.   Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide from you baby.  Another ode to stalking.  My earlier advice applies.  Outrun.
• Flock of Seagulls – I Ran.  I ran, I ran so far away. I ran, I ran all night and day.  I couldn’t get away.  Honesty check: this one is on my playlist. 

When I get sad I stop being sad and be awesome instead. True story.

Yes, I still watch How I Met Your Mother even though the characters have evolved into caricatures and the laugh track hurts my ears and seriously, am I the only one who hates Ted?  But once I’m in, I’m in.  I watched 90210 until the bitter end.  Ten long years later.  I gave up CSI slowly, skipping an episode every couple of weeks before finally making the painful break (note: and today I read that Grissom is returning for a guest appearance and this cheap ratings trick will not! lure me back in).   HIMYM has been around long enough to live forever in reruns that air twenty-seven times a day so it is impossible to avoid and I recently re-watched the NYE limo ride with Barney’s “Get Psyched” Mix.  It is so good not-Moby stole it.  I won’t tell you how many of these lendgen-wait for it -dary songs already grace my playlist.  I’m too ashamed. 

Barney’s Get Psyched Mix
I Wanna Rock – Twisted Sister
You Give Love a Bad Name – Bon Jovi
Lick It Up – Kiss
Paradise City – Guns N’ Roses
Dancing with Myself – Billy Idol
Rock You Like a Hurricane – The Scorpions
Panama – Van Halen
Talk Dirty to Me – Poison
Thunderstruck – AC/DC
Dr. Feelgood - Mötley Crüe
Round and Round – Ratt

Title:  Joe Esposito – You’re the Best Around. 1984.

This weekend Summer will strike my fair city my city.  Something about heat alerts, stay inside, don’t move unnecessarily.   I will disobey TV and run.  Even though hot runs leave me feeling nauseated and worrisomely red in the face.  I am troubled that this is a sign of things to come.  Bad things.   Hot things.  It’s still June.  Last summer was fantastic.  For runners.  We had eight months of spring.  I ran at 10 am in August.   Of the four million residents I think I ranked number one on the happiness list.  This spring it has rained fire and brimstone and it’s still spring.  My will to run melts with the weakest of sun rays.  It’s summer.  It’s a concrete jungle.  It’s overheated.  I better learn to like it.  Or tolerate it.  No one wants to listen to me complain about the heat for the next four months.  And by no one I mean Husband.  I need to remember why I love the city. 

Lovin’ Spoonful – Summer in the City.  This song may be my summer anthem.  All around, people looking half dead, walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head.   I kind of want to cry.  What kind of car to I need to buy to kickstart Global Cooling?

Guns N’ Roses – Paradise City.  The surgeon general says it’s hazardous to breathe.  I’m petitioning for traffic free Sundays.  Can I count on your signature?

We Built This City – Starship.  It’s just another Sunday in a tired old street.  During my Sunday long runs I often feel like the street is new and I’m tired and old.  Good thing they built this city on rock and roll! 

Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day.  I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known.  Don’t know where it goes, but it’s home to me and I walk alone.  I run alone, I run alone. 

Downtown – Petula Clark.  This playlist is more depressing than intended.  Time to bring out Petula.  Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city.  Linger on the sidewalk where the neon lights are pretty.   That’s better.

The Sunny Side of the Street – The Pogues.  There’s always a sunny side.  I prefer to run in the shade but I try to keep my attitude on the sunny side of the street. 

Funky Town – Lipps Inc.  A Town to keep me movin’, keep me groovin’ with some energy.  Won’t you take me to Funkeytown.

Electric Avenue – Eddy Grant.  We gonna rock down to Electric Avenue.  I think it’s on the bad side of town, so maybe I’ll just rock out to Electric Avenue.

Hot in the City – Billy Idol.  I’m a-walkin ’til my brain pops.  Hot in the city.  My brain, by the way, pops at 30C.

Where the Streets Have No Name – U2.  I want to run.  I grew up in a village so small the streets had names but no street signs.  I think people stole them.  

King of Spain – Moxy Fruvos.  Ode to my city.  Once I was the king of Spain and now I vacuum the turf at the Skydome.  Now some of you are probably wondering how I came to be living in Canada after being royalty in Spain.   Should I tell them, guys?   Tell us, King.  I guess you need to listen to the song to find out why.

Hill training.  Love it or hate it or love to hate it, at some point most of us will find ourselves at the bottom of an incline working out a strategy to get to the top without puking.  When you run heavenward pick a song that will level out the steepest slope.  I think I can, I think I can, chugga chugga choo choo.

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Diana Ross.  If you ever need a helping hand I’ll be there on the double.  As fast as I can.  Ain’t no mountain high enough.  Diana adds perespective.  No matter how high, it ain’t high enough to keep you down.  Humm.  The ain’t confuses me.  In the line ain’t no mountain, what words are contracted to form ain’t?   Is not no mountain high enough?  So there is a mountain high enough?  

Up – Shania Twain.  It’s about as bad as it could be.  Seems everybody’s buggin’ me.  Like nothing wants to go my way– yeah, it just ain’t been my day.  Nothin’s comin’ easily.  Up, up, up.  There’s no way but up from here.  That’s the power of positive thinking.  This woman moved to the alps, so she knows hills.

Mountain Music – Alabama.  The song is about being lazy, but the mountain theme might resonate.  Like grandma and grandpa used to climb as they walked 10 miles to school.  Uphill.  Both ways.  So stop complaining.

Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum.  Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky.  Sure the song is about death, but I can make almost anything about running.  It’s catchy and repeats the word up, therefore it is a hill training song.

Get Up, Stand Up – Bob Marley.  Rights, hill repeats, whatever it may be … Get up stand up, don’t give up the fight. 

When I’m Up – Great Big Sea.  When I’m up I can’t get down.  Get my feet back on the ground.  This song is a surpring boost on a sluggish run.  I’m not entirely sure what the lyrics mean, but I love this song. 

Highway to the Danger Zone – Kenny Loggins.  From the movie Top Gun.  Going up.  Fast.  Revvin’ up your engine.  Listen to her howlin’ roar.  Tom Cruise back before he was a sofa-hopping faux-psychologist mad man.  Tackle those hills, just don’t let your ego is write checks your body can’t cash.  Bonus points if you can name the source of that quote without the aid of a search engine.

Another One Bites the Dust – Queen.  A song for hill repeats.  Ain’t no sound but the sound of his feet.  At the end of every interval, another one bites the dust.  And another one gone.  Another one gone.  I sing this every time I pass a distance marker in a race.  Sometimes out loud.  Yes, that was me.

Top of the World – The Carpenters.  There is something incredibly satisfying about the top of the hill.  Looking down on creation.

Long Way to the Top – ACDC.  Need ACDC say more? It’s a long way to the top.  Might as well rock and roll on the way up.  And party every day.  Oops, scratch that last line.  Wrong song.

Thunder on the Mountain – Bob Dylan.  Double the fun: nice beat for pacing and interesting lyrics.  The sun keeps shining and the North Wind keeps picking up speed.  Gonna forget about myself for a while.  That is exactly why I run.  I need to forget about myself for a while.

Back in the High Life Again – Steve Winwood.  It used to seem to me that my life ran on too fast.  And I had to take it slowly just to make the good parts last.  But when you’re born to run it’s so hard to just slow down.  High life.  Hills.

Run to the Hills – Iron Maiden.  Run to the hills.  Run for your lives.  It may be a little slow, but rock music is strangely runable.  Run to the hills.

… and of course, I love the Mountains.  Boom dee ah da.  It kinda makes you want to break into song.  What songs did I miss?  I run a lot of hills.  I need more than 13 tunes.

Have you caught Olympic Fever?  I try to avoid the contagious bug, but it usually infects me midway through the opening ceremonies.  Although you may not be running for a spot on the podium, we all have our dreams of personal glory.  I, for one, am convinced I am a superstar 100-miler.  I will never run a 100-miler, lest I shatter this conviction.  For the athletic mortals training for the Around the Bay 30K, you really do have a shot at your own gold, silver, or bronze medal this spring.   No matter what your challenge, a little musical motivation before, during, or after your run might just get you one step closer to you sporting goals.    

Get Ready For This – 2 Unlimited.  Since 1991 this chant has echoed in stadiums around the world.  Truthfully, I hate this song.  Are you ready for this?  Not something I want to ask myself at the starting line.  Unless the answer is hell ya. 

Gold Medal – The Donnas.  Cheer on the circus clowns.  The song is title Gold Medal.  Do the lyrics or beat really matter?  [Note: The lyrics are fun and the beat is totally runable]. 

All Fired Up – Pat Benatar.  The first female vocalist featured on MTV with You Better Run (awesome!) gets us all fired up.

Ready to Go – Republica.  On the rooftops shouting it out.  Baby I’m ready to go.  I’m back and ready to go.  This is one of those songs during which I’m constantly singing the wrong words thinking I’m singing the right words even though 80% of the time I’m not even singing real words. 

Winner Takes it All – Sammy Hagar.  There is more to this song than a truck driving Sylvester Stallone arm wrestling to win his son’s respect. You listen when I say there’s a dream that’s comin’ true today.

Unstoppable – Rascal Flatts (The Olympic Mix).  This is a you can do it despite the odds against you song.  Cheesy, yes.  Motivating, yes.  I particularly enjoy this line, walked down the road a little sideways. 

Blitzkrieg Bop – Ramones.  They’re forming in straight line.  They’re going through a tight wind.  Hey ho, let’s go. Hey ho, let’s go.

We Are the Champions – Queen.  You knew it was coming.

Bachman Turner Overdrive – You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet.   This is my song for kilometre 30.  Just 12.2 more to go.  Ba-ba-bay you just ain’t seen nothing yet.  At 30K I tend towards overconfidence.  I have another song for kilometre 35, but it is considerably less positive.

Nikki Yanofsky – I Believe.  The CTV song of the Vancouver Olympics.  I’m no grammarian, but I’m reasonably certain I believe in the power of you and I is incorrect.  It’s a little slow, way over-played, and will likely be the song of choice for 2010 weddings, but the lyrics do have a gold-hued message.  And she did a bang-up job singing the national anthem during the opening ceremonies.  For my bilingual readers, this song has a Francophone version sung by Annie Villeneuve called J’imagine.

And a final selection from David Foster – Can’t You feel It, performed during the closing ceremonies of the 1988 Olympic games in Calgary.  I love the snowsuits.