On the subject of music...

I usually save my talk of music for Friday Things, but I was just thinking: does anyone else associate a particular song with a race?  Even though I have dozens of songs queued up for each of my races, and they're on random (I'm not to the level of creating the perfect play list for each moment of a race, YET), only one song stands out to me after the race is done.  And it's not always the finish line song; just one that stood out and now every time I hear it on the radio, I can't help but think of the race.

Most times, it's the song that lifted me up when I needed it most, or was playing at a great moment.  A few examples:

Yes, I know it's Chris Brown, please forgive me!  This song always makes me think of the Captain Jack 8K because it was blaring as I finally got done with first uphill half of the race and I was FLYING down a nice big hill when this came on.

This was a two-fer, it came on when I needed it most and it carried me over the finish line for my second half marathon and current PR at the Lake Sammamish Half Marathon.

This song was playing at the start of the See Jane Run half marathon, it's a good easing into a race song, when I got my Oiselle side fives: my favorite part of that day.

And this will always make me think of my first half marathon, the Seattle Half Marathon when we were running through the streets of downtown Seattle and seeing that sea of SO MANY PEOPLE.  It had been a long time since I'd done such a big race and that's always such a fun feeling being a part of something so huge.  Reminded me a bit of the old Shamrock Shuffle days...

Anyhoo, you get the idea.  I know these are not highfalutin songs, by any means.  They're not what I turn to while I just want to sit and listen to music (David Gray or The Shins usually win out in that category), but they sure make me smile and give me much needed energy.  I hate when I see those judgemental posts (usually on Facebook) where songs lyrics of past decades are compared to today's Bieber song "Like Baby Baby Baby" and oh, where has creativity gone, blah blah.  Well, is anyone criticizing The Beatles for "she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah?" (blasphemy!) or one of my favorite songs of all time, The Jackson Five singing "ABC, easy as 123?"  And sometimes it's not about the lyrics: "Ho Hey" by the Lumineers is so simple and yet one of the most sublime songs I've heard in decades.  I'm just gonna go ahead and embed that one, in case you haven't heard it yet:

I think there are plenty of great artists, and lyrics, out there right now (I almost lost my voice singing Colbie Caillat's version of "Breakeven" when I was in the car ALONE last week) and they're just as relevant as the fun pop songs on the radio today.  Well, in my opinion anyway.  I'll get off my soapbox now...