The Running Man and His Playlist

I have a playlist for running.  It is full of tracks that have a steady beat – nothing with jarring changes that might confuse plodding feet – that approximate the metronomic thump of my 5k lope.  It is probably because of the choice of my music that I manage to maintain such a steady pace: it does not vary by much more than three or four seconds per kilometre.  Today I took a slightly different route to my normal, expecting to cross the local sports field and pub garden as a bit of a change of scenery.  As I made my way across the sports field I was treated to the kind of stare that Hannibal Lecter might have stopped using on the grounds that it was too disturbing, by a man playing ball with his two toddlers.  This is a big field.  I must have been at least thirty yards away from them, but he clearly saw me as some sort of superbug.  It would appear that whatever the chunk of atmosphere he had decided was exclusively his; I was intruding upon it and breathing out God-knows-what.  I was pleased he didn’t have a dog.  He struck me as the kind that might well set it on me.  I was in no state by then to run away.  Speeding up was not an option.  When I say that my pace is steady, I forget to mention that it is only because I don’t have a second gear.

Anyway, having passed through the park without actual physical attack I arrived at the back of the pub to find the gates locked and chained, which meant that I either went back through the park or on through the churchyard.  I felt a little uneasy about running through the graves, but I slowed slightly as I passed the most recent, which I’m sure the occupants appreciated.  I would have bowed my head, but that would have inevitably ended up in me going full length over something stone and immovable, so I continued to look where I was going.  The detour added an extra kilometre to my run although the pace remained unaltered, all down, I am sure, to the even beat of my running playlist.  I really didn’t realise how many good ‘plodders’ I have.

Today’s running tunes:

• Big Money – Rush
• Bully – Judie Tzuke
• Locomotive Breath – Martin Barre
• White Man in Hammersmith Palais – The Clash
• Fascination – Bowie
• Action – Def Leppard
• Seven Seas of Rye – Queen
• Pretending – Eric Clapton

I have no concept whatsoever of time signatures, but a steady lope was maintained throughout…

The previous instalment of the running diary ‘The Running Man Fellowship’ is here.
The next instalment of the running diary ‘The Running Man and Birthdays’ is here.
The first instalment of the running diary ‘Couch to 5k’ is here.