Couch to Pooped-K

The trailer for a soon to be released film from one of my favorite writers, Thomas McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor, Up) begins with a little girl lying in bed with her mother, and she asks, “Where’s daddy?” After the mother answers, “Running,” the little girl pauses and asks, “From what?”

Great question.

Though I’ve turned “Spunky” off, her handlers told me that I was to run 25 minutes each of my three workouts this week. (I should note that no serious athlete would mistake what I do with actual running.) Today, though I trudged along at a miserably slow pace, I cranked out nearly 34 minutes and (cue the drumroll) 5.02 kilometers!

I was helped today by the soundtrack generated by the shuffle setting on my iPod. The following lyrics emerged, giving expression to the whole experience. I record below the relevant lines.

Enjoy:

“My hands are tied, my body bruised…” (U2 – “With or Without You”)

“Red eyes and fire and signs…Oh, such a prima donna, sorry for myself…” (Weepies, “Gotta Have You”)

“…I thank God that I’m alive…” (Sara Evans, “I Could Not Ask for More”)

“…time goes by so slowly…” (Leann Rimes, “Unchained Melody”)

“Maybe I might have changed and…Not been such a fool…” (Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, “From the Beginning”)

“The rugged road through barren lands, The way is dark, the road is steep…” (Alison Krauss, “A Living Prayer”)

“…you’ll catch me if ever I fall…” (Alison Krauss, “When You Say Nothing At All”)

“Half of the time we’re gone but we don’t know where…” (Simon and Garfunkel, “The Only Living Boy in New York”)

The final song to play was appropriate as well. It was called Arabesque #1 by Debussy, and, as we all know, the word “Arabesque” is a well know French phrase meaning “Gonna Fly Now“. (Go ahead – play the sample. You’ll recognize it…)