Eric’s Running Playlist

Guest Blogger Eric Jorgensen

Last week I emailed Maddie, who is The Wipro San Francisco Marathon blog show runner, and told her I wanted to write about running and music. I was having one of those awesome hipster weeks when you have three or four new songs that you can’t stop listening to, so I was inspired to share my discoveries and show you all how cool I was. I made a playlist and everything.

I was planning on writing about my amazing, listen-to-these-songs-before-they’re-cool playlist, but then I discovered Songza, and I was defeated by the Universe.

Songza has similarities to Spotify, Last.fm and Pandora. What makes it unique is its curated playlists, which are catered to times of the day, activities, moods and seasons. The same way traffic knows to congest only when you’re already five minutes late for work, Songza knows what playlists will suit your mood best. Within all those categories are several workout playlists comprised of music from different genres. It’s not difficult to find something you’ll like, including stuff so hipster I had to take a step back so I could bend over and scrape my ego off the cold wooden floors of my apartment.

If discovering Songza wasn’t enough, running royalty Kara Goucher Facebook’d her own cardio playlist—yesterday:

-Lazy Eye by Silversun Pickups
-We Are Young (feat. Janelle Monáe) by Fun
-Some Nights by Fun
-Payphone (feat. Wiz Khalifa) by Maroon 5
-I’m All Yours (feat. Pitbull) by Jay Sean
-Back In Time (From “Men In Black III”) by Pitbull
-Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen
-Somebody That I Used to Know (Tiësto Remix) by Gotye

Now you really don’t care what my playlist looks like. The goddess just mic dropped this mere ambassador.

But I don’t care, I’m going to pout and share a few. While a few of Goucher’s songs are fine, I can’t listen to most of them, because my hipster-music smugness doesn’t stop just because I’m running. I also can’t believe I just wrote the words “Call me Maybe by Carly Rae Jespen” in something I published. I don’t acknowledge that song’s existence, much less put it on some kind of running pedestal.

My newest running baby is Fitzpleasure by alt-J. Before Monday I had never heard of alt-J, and probably won’t hear of them again.

A fittingly named song is Run Boy Run by Woodkid. It’s uptempo and the tribal drums are like having Red Bull pumped into your quads. I’m especially keen on I Love It by Icona Pop, which makes me want to sprint until my shoes catch fire.

Another is Love is Blindness by Jack White. This song is a U2 cover, but I love it because it is in the trailer for the forthcoming The Great Gatsby movie with Leonardo DiCaprio. The F. Scott Fitzgerald book is one those that changes your life when you read it, and any song connected to that book makes me feel large and grand, and fills me power to crush hills.

M83. His entire catalog. Every song he’s made makes me feel like a camera is dollying next to me as I run in slow motion as camera’s flash.

Between the scene-stealing Songza, the one-upping Kara Goucher, and my pouty-faced suggestions, you should be able to find the songs that will power you through these last few weeks of training. Now go hit play, and then the pavement.