Beyond Chariots of Fire

This article first appear in The Wingfoot


By Mitt O'Chondria

We've all had the experience: you're warming up for a race, or passing some P.A. equipment along the route, and suddenly you hear the song that can induce fatigue in even the most well-trained runner, that old chestnut, Chariots of Fire. And you know that as surely as Heartbreak Hill comes after the Newton Fire Station, the next thing you're going to hear is Born to Run, unless Eye of the Tiger or perhaps The William Tell Overture gets there first. It was when we were able to correctly predict every single song played during a cross country meet last winter that we realized that there actually must be people selling tapes of the Greatest Clichés of Running Music and foisting them on unsuspecting race directors all over the country.

As an antidote to those collections of tired songs, we offer the following suggestions to race directors and to those runners who train in the company of an iPod. (Our judgments about such runners are reserved for a later article, as is the discussion of whether The Chemical Brothers were ever the house band at BALCO.)

Let's start with a few obvious selections:

Stars of Track and Field, Belle and Sebastian
The Loneliness of a Middle Distance Runner, Belle and Sebastian

We’re not exactly sure why our favorite Scottish alternative band has written two songs with such obviously relevant titles (or why they chose the term "Track and Field" for a sport that is called "Athletics" in the U.K.) but you could certainly do a lot worse that B&S when it comes to psyching up on race day.

The Distance, Cake. "He's going the distance. He's going for speed." You can't ask for more appropriate lyrics than that. (Compare to the lyrics of Eye of the Tiger, for example).

One Way or Another, Blondie. "One way or another I'm gonna getcha getcha getcha" - a perfect song to have in your head at the end of a race as you try to reel in the competition.

Perhaps a more surprising selection is Naked Eye, by Luscious Jackson. With the constantly repeating backing vocal of "It feels alright" we've found it to be the perfect song as you try to judge the correct level of effort in the early miles of a half-marathon. On those occasions where pace judgment fails, we recommend She's Lost Control by Joy Division, which benefits from an excellent drum track recorded on a Manchester rooftop.

Anyone who has watched the opening scene of Trainspotting will appreciate that Iggy Pop's Lust for Life is really a running song, especially suitable for those attempting to outrun police officers.

During the high mileage weeks of marathon training, we find it hard to go past Under the Sun, by Australian band Hunters and Collectors, with the opening line of "These are easy days, but his knees ache in the morning."

And finally, for the night before a race, nothing tops the insomniac anthem Who needs sleep?, by Barenaked Ladies, who also provide us with the perfect post-race song, Alcohol.