The Play(list)'s the Thing

No news on the writing front, so I'm going to lay off my public contemplations of my future spiritual and career-oriented journey (although I must say that I do so appreciate all of you who have commented and are supporting me whatever I choose! Putting this growth process on blog has made me feel particularly vulnerable). So on to other topics.

Hmmmmm... other topics. Is there something other than writing?

Oh yeah, running!

So two weeks ago my husband gave me an iPod Touch. I'd lusted after the things vaguely, but couldn't justify paying that kind of money so I used my cheap plastic mp3 player I picked up at Wal-Mart for twenty bucks when I went to the gym. It worked fine, but it didn't allow me to arrange the songs in any particular order.

The iPod lets me customize my playlist into what is becoming a killer workout playlist! So much so, that I might end up having a heart attack in the middle of the gym because there is no time to let up! I mean, who can slow to a jog when Katy Perry is singing Hot and Cold, or Kelly Clarkson is belting out...well, almost anything off her new album.

Every time I start to feel like my chest is going to explode and my heart is going to zing across the gym like an out of control bullet, or that I'm going to drown in my own sweat, (is that just TMI?), every time I feel like as soon as this song is over, I'm going to slow down a little, another awesome song comes on and it's impossible to not kick it up another notch. (I love the fact that just when I think I'm giving in, the song To The Beat Of Our Noisy Hearts comes on... "We just go on and on and on and on to the beat of our noisy hearts..." So fitting!!)

It's worked well (or badly, depending on how you look at it) for playing into my penchant for "one more thing." I'm always late trying to get in "just one more thing" before I leave the house, one more errand before I pick up the kids, one more page before I turn off the light.

This huge fault of mine is probably the single most important factors in pushing me to run harder and further each day. That, and my dislike of uneven numbers and a feeling of incompleteness. I can't stop in the middle of a song. I have to finish the song. And stop before the next one begins. But I can't stop at an odd mileage either. Like 5.13 miles. That's just weird. So I think, I'll just hit 5.25 - an odd number but at a quarter mile, acceptable. Except by the time I get there, a song is still going and I think, heck, a quarter mile's nothing. I should at least do 5.50... a much more even number. Halves are good. But when I get there, I think, well, if I can do that, it's only four more minutes to hit 6 miles and that is a much, much better, more even number.

And so it goes.

A little OCD, I think. Possibly? You think?

But hey - a little OCD, a little iPod... I'll be running a marathon by September!