One of my sisters-in-law is a runner and we had a bit of a chat at a family dinner last night about things generally "runningy". She completed the New York marathon last November (her first) and runs 20km every Saturday, but reckons the
Point to Pinnacle (P2P) is madness and refuses to be coaxed into joining us (ie Sweder, Seafront Plodder, myself and maybe El Gordo) next November for said dash up the mountain.
Never the less she was happy to discuss training methods and rather callously (I thought) pointed out all the nearby steep hills in our area. She also coerced me into agreeing to enter a local 10km fun run in April which she says has a couple of "brutish" hills that have to be negotiated twice, making it "mentally horrible" the second time around. After having had a few wines though I thought it sounded rather fun, so have put it on my calendar. We also both agreed that the
Sydney Half Marathon on September 18 was a "must" and would fit comfortably in with training for the P2P.
So I now have three races on the cards for 2011, which is pretty good because I'm going to need 9 months training to successfully negotiate the P2P and to do that I'm going to need some other race goals along the way to maintain some momentum and not crash and burn at the first bad run or mild niggle (as usual).
But first things first: before I can begin serious training I've had to of course finalise my running music; and in the process I can now announce to the world that I have, after
years of thorough research and field testing been able to determine the absolutely conclusive
top ten running songs of all time*.
Here for your edification is the final list, plus the next five that it really hurt to leave out - and therefore I sort of didn't.
It took some thrashing out, I can tell you - defining a final, final list like this is not something that can be easily done, being subject, as subjective things by their nature always are, to the vagaries of mood, enthusiasm, weather etc etc. But I'm pretty happy with this list. Sometimes I look at it and wonder why such and such a song is at such and such a position on the list or even why it is there at all, but as soon I get running to it, it makes sense again, so I have to say I'm pretty happy with it.
The only song that has not been in doubt since I started this quest is the one up there at number one: ELP's
Fanfare For The Common Man has been my favourite running track for as long as I can remember. It's always been a favourite track anyhow, but ever since one of the TV networks here brilliantly reprised it as their theme for coverage of the 2000 Olympics I've always associated it with sporting endeavour and as far as running music goes, it has never failed me yet. Staggeringly good to run to, and perhaps odd for being the only instrumental on the list.
There are some obvious choices in there (e.g.
Born To Run, albeit at lowly #10) and maybe a couple of surprises (I know, I know, WTF is Barry White doing in there??). Not surprising is that most of it is "old" music (with the possible exception of Jamiroquai) - mostly from the 70s I see... but it works for me.
Anyway, here you go:
1.
Fanfare For The Common Man - Emerson Lake and Palmer
2.
Where The Streets Have No Name - U2
3.
Nutbush City Limits - Ike & Tina Turner
4. Walk On By - Stranglers
5. Living On A Prayer - Bon Jovi
6. My Sweet Lord - George Harrison
7.
Eloise - Barry Ryan
8. What I Like About You - The Romantics
9.
Love Her Madly - The Doors
10. Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen
---------------------------------
11. You're My First, My Last, My Everything - Barry White
12. Little L - Jamiroquai
13. Teardrops - Womack & Womack
14.
Stone Me Into The Groove - Atomic Swing
15.
I Only Want To Be With You - Dusty Springfield
Anyone else got a list they've been working on?
*
subject to conditions, see in store for details.
Point to Pinnacle - it begins!
