I recently ran my third 100-mile race. One of my favorite things about running 100 milers - in addition to the pain, the beauty, the heightened emotions and experiences which are inevitably fuzzified by memory's fickle biologic devices, the chafing, the crying out of misery, the crying out of joy, and the dawn light - is the warm fuzzy feeling I get from the selfless, seemingly limitless support my friends, family, loved ones, and total strangers shower on me.
And an overlooked element of that support is the music that, thanks to modern technology, I can take with me up and down mountain passes.
Out of the many races I do - trail, road, relay, ultra - hundred-milers are the only ones where I use headphones. Why? Because 24+ hours is a lot of time to spend with your own head. My prime directive during a 100-miler is to stay happy. If I'm happy, I'm running (or hiking, as is more often the case) well. Trouble starts when my mood dips.
With the help of friends and family (Amy, Robbie, Sarah, Kayanna, Anat, Helen, Kaya, all the Wirfs-Brocks), who shared songs that make them happy, I put together this playlist: 267 songs, 17+ hours of music, an artesian well of happiness. And it worked. This playlist, which has been evolving since my 100-mile debut last year, was an especially important "member of my crew" at Cascade Crest last weekend, where I ran without a pacer until the last four miles (thanks, Mom!).
So, here it is! (Sorry, you'll have to scroll.)
View in Google Drive
I included the years in there because it's mildly interesting to see the chronological distribution of the music. That data is iffy (sometimes it's the year of a re-release, because it's from iTunes), and not available for every song...yet!
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