Running to music ... The key is in the pace. Photograph: Rudy Sulgan
The private world that headphones grant you is often the key to a decent run. And so I pity those taking part in this year's New York City Marathon -- banned, it seems, from wearing headphones.
The music you run to is, of course, an enormously personal thing. The key is in the pace. Oh, sprinting along to Nirvana's Smells Like Team Spirit seems like a fabulous idea when you're tying up your trainer laces, but out there on the pavement, in the park, across the field, you soon find you have used up all of your running energy in one early burst of sprinting, as if for a few moments Kurt Cobain had grabbed a hold of your legs.
A friend of mine, and veteran of two marathons, runs to spoken word books because the rhythm -- slow and steady -- allows him to lope along at an even pace. I used to run to Motown. I had decided that its upbeat demeanour might propel me through those difficult red-faced, heart-thudding moments when you are certain that you will either collapse or your legs will stop of their own accord. In actual fact it made me too giddy, and so now I plump for something steadier -- just lately The Foo Fighters' Razor, the kind of sturdy, stable-rhythmed tune my legs can cope with.
What songs do you like to run to?
