68. Dare yourself into the distance.

Running tip #68

My daughter, Lizzie, told me I should do a post on “pump up songs,”  but music, to me, is so personal and immediate that I don’t feel comfortable offering suggestions for what to listen to before you race.  We’re all snowflakes, ya know?  Singular, original, unique … no two of us could possibly have the exact musical taste.   My favorite song changes almost daily.  Like today, when I was in the Open Eye cafe  having an espresso shake on an unseasonably warm afternoon in March, the baristas were playing Neil Young’s Harvest and I thought THIS is my pump up song today, right now … A Man Needs a Maid … because of these lyrics:

To give a love,
you gotta live a love.
To live a love,
you gotta be “part of”

…  because the song was playing while I was meeting the new captains of my high school XC team.  I am a “part of” their lives now; they are a “part of ” me.  I almost cried right there in the coffee shop.

This happens in every phase of our lives as human beings.  We love and are loved … and if music can capture our emotions, our “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (as Wordsworth says in his preface to Lyrical Ballads) then Lizzie is right, pump-up songs are a tip worth sharing.

SO, for tip #68 give a listen to my current favorite pre-race (pre-life!) song by Oberlin College rising freshman, Sam Bailey:

Dare yourself into the distance

I hope this inspires my XC girls to dare themselves into NXN!