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A friend of mine emailed me a page from The New Yorker yesterday. The black-and-white cartoon showed two PacMan-like faces staring at one another. The face on the left’s speech bubble said “Marathon, Marathon, Marathon, Marathon, Marathon.” On the right, it simply said, “Zzzzzzz.”
That pretty much sums up the days following any marathon, let alone a PR. It was my best marathon ever. I ran the first 13.1 miles in 1:57:02, the second in 1:54:04 to finish in 3:51:05 (an average speed of 8:50 per mile). I was the 9239th male finisher, and 11,285th of 43,475 overall finishers (or, roughly, the top 26%).
It’s such an epic undertaking that it’s tough to talk about anything else. So I appreciate when people ask me questions about it (“Are you sore? What is the hardest part? Are you going to do another one?”), and tend to go on longer than they might prefer. It’s difficult to resist.
Before I fully return to our regularly-scheduled programming, then, I thought I’d share the actual playlist I assembled for the tune. In the event you’re running a sub-four marathon in the near future, here are 56 songs that might come in handy helping you across the finish.
“Life In Technicolor” Coldplay
“Mike Mills” Air
“Wyoming Sky” Raining Jane
“Love Is Here To Stay” Casey Shea
“I Can See Clearly Now” Hothouse Flowers
“I Don’t Know What It Is” Rufus Wainwright
“Angels In The Atmosphere” Benjamin Wagner
“Live In A Dream” Andy Wagner
“Music Is My Boyfriend” The Hidden Cameras
“Sunday Shining” Finley Quaye
“Meet Me On the Equinox” Death Cab for Cutie
“Begin the Begin” R.E.M.
“Get On Your Boots” U2
“Suprise” Semisonic
“Portions for Foxes” Rilo Kiley
“With or Without You” U2
“Hiding Out Pete” Townshend
“Chocolate Snow” Patrol Final
“Have You Seen Me Lately?” Counting Crows
“Pretty Good Shape (For The Shape I’m In)” Casey Shea
“Dodged a Bullet” The Nadas
“I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” U2
“Livin’ In the Future” Bruce Springsteen
“Breathe” U2
“Feel Like Home” Benjamin Wagner
“Speed of Sound” Coldplay
“Hangin’ Around” Counting Crows
“55 Pictures” The Damnwells
“Elevation” U2
“Move Along” The All-American Rejects
“Best Of You” Foo Fighters
“Stuck Between Stations” The Hold Steady
“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” U2
“Over My Head (Cable Car)” The Fray
“If Today Was Your Last Day” Nickelback
“Give Blood Pete” Townshend
“Come Back Home” Pete Yorn
“Fugitive” David Gray
“Chasing Cars” Snow Patrol
“I Am a Leaver” The Damnwells
“The Fixer” Pearl Jam
“Walk On” U2
“Rhinemaidens” The Envy Corps
“This’ll Be My Year” Semisonic
“World to Me” David Gray
“New York” Ryan Adams
“New York” U2
“Beautiful Day” U2
“Empire State of Mind” Jay-Z
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” Green Day
“Sometime Around Midnight” The Airborne Toxic Event
“N.Y.” Doves
“Know Your Enemy” Green Day
“Man-Sized Wreath” R.E.M.
“Where the Streets Have No Name” U2
“Magnificent (Redanka’s 360 Version)” U2
This year marked my tenth New York City Marathon in as many years. I’m not likely to return to that Staten Island start next November. But I will be back. Oh yes, I will be back.
* Official New York City Marathon finish times are pending until November 16th. I have seen numerous different readings on mine: 3:51:08 on my watch (due to the few seconds it took to press stop after finishing), 3:51:06 on the New York Road Runners website, and 3:51:05 on my unofficial New York Road Runners finishers email. Not surprisingly, I’m going with the latter.
The post My Actual 3:51:05* New York City Marathon Playlist appeared first on Benjamin Wagner.