Top Ten Running Songs

People who don't do long-distance running often ask if I get bored when running. Uh, yes. I've tried different approaches to boredom. Zen running, which is like meditation while in motion, is great for shorter distances but is hard to maintain for more than a half hour or so. A runner I know mentally designed her dream house, room by room, while training for a marathon. Currently, my iPod is my mostly companion while running, and there are certain songs that act as a sort of auditory Gu (that's the Power Bar gel runners consume). Here's my top-10 of running songs:

10. Graceland (Paul Simon)
9. I'm a Believer (Smashmouth)
8. We Beseech Thee (Godspell Original Cast Recording)
7. Mississippi (Sheryl Crow)
6. Darlington County (Bruce Springsteen)
5. Glory Days (Bruce Springsteen)
4. Les Yeux de Ton Pere (Les Negresses Vertes)
3. Eyes Like Yours (Shakira)
2. A Little Less Conversation (Elvis)
1. Cadillac Ranch (Bruce Springsteen)

Note my loyalty to Springsteen, who provides the best possible running pace on the three songs listed above. Feel free to give them a listen and add them to your own aerobic playlist. There are no better songs for keeping a good pace.

Kristina Runs?

Having read my first post, you might ask the above question. Most people know that I was a dancer growing up and into college, and some people know I once played on my high school tennis team. But a lot of people don't know that I started running after college and have actually run a marathon before.

To be selected for the DFMC, one has to apply. It's not simply that I signed up, and it's definitely not that I had a qualifying time to run the Boston Marathon (which is something like 3 hrs. and 40 minutes for my age and gender). I had to write an essay and explain why I want to run the Boston Marathon and why, specifically, I want to raise money for cancer research. In addition, applicants were encouraged to submit any supplementary materials to assist in the selection process. I won't post all of my statements and essays at once. Below is what I submitted to explain why I run, as well as the photo of me finishing my first marathon in Richmond in 2002...

Why I Run

Convinced as a kid that I lacked the necessary talents for organized team sports, I avoided physical education, dreading Field Day year after year in school. As a grad student, though, I met and became good friends with several women who had been involved in running for years, and their accomplishments convinced me that running isn’t only for elite athletes or those with a natural aptitude for it. I ran my first marathon in 2002, and have consistently found that running is an integral element in my psychological and physical strength. Before my commitment to a running practice, I believed I should only ever run if I was trying to get away from something. Since becoming a runner, however, I’ve come to realize the dividends reaped by running toward a stronger and more efficacious self.

I started running the way most do, amazed at finishing even a single mile without stopping. A former dancer, I had become disenchanted with the competition of the studio and did not have the outlet for an intramural team like soccer or softball. As a recent college graduate living in Pittsburgh, I started to run to release energy and get some straightforward aerobic exercise. I gradually added distance, one city block at a time, and ran my first 5K for the Susan Komen charity. At the time, I didn’t think I could ever run further than 3.1 miles.

In graduate school for psychology, I met several accomplished runners who happened to be women much like me, studying child development and not overly athletic. These women, to my surprise, had run marathons, a distance I had never considered possible for myself prior to meeting them. Inspired by their discipline and accomplishment of 26.2 miles (in a single day!), I trained for and completed my first marathon on a brilliant October day.

As a researcher in the area of girls’ resilience and healthy development, I have a personal conviction that fitness, physical activity, and running especially, can function in girls’ lives as an asset that leaves ideas of dieting, weight, and body obsession in the dust. Not one to ever portray girls as deficient, I do believe that most boys have been raised to experience physical activity as fun and a source of pride, not exclusively as the basis for weight management or self-worth. I am a runner for myself, but I am also a runner for others. I run to live what I believe—that girls and women can accomplish physical achievements they never before conceived.

I Made the Team!

Today I learned I was selected from "hundreds of applicants" to join the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC), along with about 50 other people who think raising thousands of dollars in order to run 26.2 miles sounds like good fun. When I received my congratulatory email from the DFMC folks, I immediately flashed to my days in gym class, and my chronic misfortune of being picked last for any team. So invisible was I to any team captain that I probably would have been chosen last for the gymaphobes team, had there been such a unit. But today that unfortunate identity has been remedied and on April 16, I will run the Boston Marathon, hopefully having raised at least $3000. Because otherwise, my credit card will be charged for the balance. So please sponsor me!!!