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Soundtrack of a marathon: Adagio for Strings?

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5ksandcabernets: Soundtrack of a marathon: Adagio for Strings?

5ksandcabernets

Friday, December 12, 2008

Soundtrack of a marathon: Adagio for Strings?

No matter what happens Sunday during my running of the White Rock Marathon in Dallas, it is sure to be a memorable event.

The last two marathons, I've let the event photographer post photos online and then pay the money to have them ship a photo to me.

But this year, I'm trying something different. I've hired one of my co-workers at the newspaper to follow me around on the course. Andrea Ahles is going to shoot video and still photography and then give me a short 5-minute video of the event a few days later. How cool is that?

Anyways, I figured that a good marathon video needs good marathon music. I didn't wanna go with Chariots of Fire because that's just too hokey. Any of the Rocky songs would be too predictable. I love dance music, absolutely love it, and my favorite dance music artist is Tiesto. A few years back, he did a remake of a song called Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber. This song (Barber's original) is usually played at the funerals and wakes of famous dead people. It played hauntingly in one of the final scenes of the movie Platoon. (Barber died of cancer in 1981 and spent his final days clinically depressed. Maybe he was listening to his own music too much).

But the Tiesto version is very upbeat, very spirited and full of life and when you listen to it, you don't even know its the Barber song. The last 2 1/2 minutes of the Tiesto cover absolutely makes my spine tingle when I'm in the car listening, so I figured, "That's it. That's my marathon song. Here is a small cut.

The real cool thing is that Andrea, my co-worker, was willing to follow me around for 3 1/2 hours at White Rock Lake. So while I'm bummed that the weather is going to be a little warm (mid 50s to 70s), I'm glad Andrea will be comfortable. There was a little method to my madness in hiring Andrea, who is actually one of the business writers at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. She's an Ivy League grad (Penn) who attended the same high school in Hawaii as Barack Obama and she spends most of her days chasing around Cowboys owner Jerry Jones writing stories about the $1 billion stadium he is building in Arlington. So, she's got good karma (if you don't count the time last month that some stupid azz, in a fit of road rage, shot at her husband on Loop 820 - nobody got hurt, just a bunch of glass everywhere).

So, I'm hoping the good karma from Andrea rubs off on me and I have a good race.

Wish me luck

10 Comments:

Blogger Linden said...

This is me wishing you luck!!! I'll be sending you all my strong, fast, non-nervous thoughts your way! You are going to do great.

December 12, 2008 at 1:32 PM  
Blogger Ewen said...

Good luck Kevin. I'm looking forward to the video - 3 1/2 hours into 5 minutes!

December 12, 2008 at 5:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! I think that is too cool to have someone video you during your run. I am sooooo excited for you! I have phone updates of the splits that your marathon will broadcast, so I'll be with you in spirit via technology! I believe you are going to do AWESOME!

December 12, 2008 at 7:32 PM  
Blogger Lindsay said...

what a cool idea (and pretty convenient too)! good luck this weekend, looking forward to your race report and video!

December 12, 2008 at 9:29 PM  
Blogger A Plain Observer said...

Good luck.

December 13, 2008 at 8:54 PM  
Blogger A Plain Observer said...

You are going to kick butt my friend!!! I hope I'll be able to track you. If not, I'll see the results later.

Relax, get to the start line and look up. Inhale all of that beauty. You are there, did your work and it is all going to come into place. Do not let anything bother you. And don't have any dairy....(I'll have the wine for you)

and if you don't kick butt, I'll kick yours....
but no pressure.

December 13, 2008 at 9:00 PM  
Blogger Run For Life said...

Best of luck, Kevin!!! Have a great run - can't wait to hear how it goes. :)

December 13, 2008 at 11:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

just wanted to give you best wishes for a great marathon run today! my favorite run song is The Distance by Cake...I change the words up for "she's going the distance..." but as I played it for my 10 year old today (who was running a 5k), I thought of you:

"He's haunted by something he cannot define

Bowel shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse

Assail him and bail him with monster truck force"

You WILL tackle this dark cloud that has covered your marathon twice before! I will be anticipating those splits popping up on my phone!!

RUN FAST, RUN HARD!!

December 13, 2008 at 11:46 PM  
Blogger DawnB said...

i think i've been wishing you luck all week have a great race

December 14, 2008 at 8:48 AM  
Blogger A Plain Observer said...

didn't get your bib #!!! can't track you!

December 14, 2008 at 1:06 PM  

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