31 Runs for 31 Years

Last fall I ran the New York Marathon. Yay for me. Then, around Thanksgiving, I entirely ceased running. Let's eat, drink and sleep for a change. By January I was feeling puffy and sluggish and really, really depressed. But the weather was miserable, worse than miserable, and so was I. So by early February I was inspired to finally get back out there, sub-freezing temps be damned.

I had gotten used to listening to PODRUNNER, which I still subscribe to ... but I knew I would need shorter workouts if I was going to maintain any kind of regularity in my runs. No more hour-plus runs, that's too much time, and besides, I needed to get back into shape.

So instead I crafted thirty to forty-five minute playlists - and each one would be from a different year. I didn't put them together in any particular order, but I found I could go back as far as 1977 - before that I don't have enough music in my library with enough punch. Actually, they didn't make music with punch before then.

As it also turns out, 1977 was the year I came into awareness of the larger world. Star Wars, Three Mile Island, President Carter, Saturday Night Live - and Top 40 radio, I started consuming culture that year. I cannot claim to have actually listened to everything on my 31 years worth of playlists when they were released, but if I made playlists of what I was listening to at that time, well, I would probably be doing a lot of strolling, not running.

So, for those of you who don't already following my other blog, Daddy Runs Fast, here's the run-down:

1977 Daddy likes men

1978 Ja tvoi sluga. Ja tvoi rabotnik.

1979 Flying like a cement kite

1980 Here we go again

1981 The engine's thumpin' like a disco

1982 Fingerpaint the sun on you

1983 Did you know you had this power?

1984 It's a lot like life

1985 No one move a muscle as the dead come home

1986 The sun. More beautiful.

1987 My whole life flashed before I crashed

1988 It's a physical thing but not hard to do

1989 O brave new world

1990 Just a minute let me slip something on

1991 The sun struggles up another beautiful day

1992 Just words and so much skin

1993 We are such stuff ...

1994 The only thing that works for me

1995 Stop f*cking with me

1996 And I'll need a kiss for my head that's aching

1997 My blood wants to say hello to you

1998 Perfect solution to the stress and the strain

1999 Full fathom five

2000 I drank too much last night, got bills to pay

2001 I can go for miles if you know what I mean

2002 It's like St. John said

2003 How much do you commit yourself

2004 I'm fit (but I know it)

2005 You're lucky, lucky, you're so lucky!

2006 Beware of the dork

2007 Tomorrow there's no school so let's go drink some more Red Bull