In 2010, when I ran my first half marathon, I made a playlist. It was OK, but after fiddling with my iPod around mile 11.5 because “I just had to hear ‘I Gotta Feeling’ by Black Eyed Peas,” I learned I needed to be a bit more strategic. Many playlists later (all at the bottom of this post), I got better, and learned what songs were triggers for pump up music. So when this half marathon #2 came up last month, I was ready. Last year, I had too many songs. This year I did too. Exactly 65 songs, and 4.9 hours worth of music. Perfect for a full, but this was a half. But, I did that on purpose. Sometimes I get skip-happy. Also, I didn’t know if I wanted to listen to all the Girl Talk- All Day songs I put on there. But I was wrong. All Day is the mash up of all mash ups of music. It’s awesome. It’s 12 tracks meant to be listened at one time since they all flow into each other and essentially form one song. What I did was add each track individually throughout, so they were staggered with other, regular songs. It was a good idea, and fun for any kind of run.

One other thing I did differently this year was stopped and listened to things around me. There was the crowds, the bands, and sounds of others by me. I took the time to listen, and didn’t play my music too loud because I didn’t want to miss anything. The result? A PR (personal record) of 17 minutes faster than last year! OK, maybe it wasn’t ONLY the music, but it helped. And below is a screen grab of all the music (click on each image to enlarge). This was on shuffle, so it didn’t come up in this order (another tactic I use for my musical A.D.D.).

To download Girl Talk, click here, then click the MP3s (separated tracks) option, then DOWNLOAD. Once they download, drag the files to your iTunes and run on.

Visit my playlists page for more!