I was in for a treat as I left the house for Long Run Sunday this morning. But I didn't realize it at first. No, no - instead, I panicked.
You see, my iPod shuffle was dead. I'd charged it earlier this week, but mistakenly left it powered on, so all of that charging was done in vain. Boo.
My Type A-ness kicked in when I was confronted by this error, mostly because I spend the better part of my life honing down my iTunes collection to a perfect 1 gigabyte of "good" running tunes. If you know me, you know that this might take awhile, as I'm prone to adding mostly slow, acoustic sad songs to my iTunes by the albumful. What can I say? An apathetic 15-year-old emo kid still lives inside of my iTunes, apparently.
So, rather than run 18 miles without music (vomit), I picked up my iPod touch instead and headed out. I love my iPod touch, but it's a bit bulky, so that was the first con. Andplusalso, I didn't have any predetermined playlists set for a 3-hour run. The iPod touch is evidently one thing in my life that's not pre-set. Hmm.
Anyway, after blowing through all of Girl Talk's All Day album in the first 60 minutes, I flipped the switch to shuffle and let the iPod do its thang. And this is where the treat comes in, oh yay! In the era where we have the opportunity to store gig upon gig of music in our handy dandy musical friends, I think we often forget just how much good stuff can be hiding in all of those gigs. Songs I haven't heard in years (like Modest Mouse's "One Chance") got me through miles 10 and 11. Sappy reflective tunes (John Mayer's "In Your Atmosphere") let me drift away between hills and sips of water.
Today's song - "My Hero" - is another gem buried deep in the iPod Canyon. This song first made an appearance in my life when I actually was that 15-year-old emo kid. I remember bringing the CD into my English class when our teacher asked us to bring in a song that represented what a true hero was all about. We did a class vote, but the Foo lost; at that point, kids in my high school were more into gangsta rap than they were the guy that used to be the drummer for some band called Nirvana.
Whew. So, here it is. Have a listen, and then maybe go give yourself some blue highlights in honor of my teenage angst: