- Emily Ellet
Footloose and Fancy Free
Let’s be honest, though – I don’t run after sunset. I’ve watched SVU!
I went for a run! Well, technically, a whole bunch of run/walks in the last month (I prefer not to lock myself into any speed), but still – yay!
I mentioned here that I finally got myself to look at iTunes for the first time since college and successfully created some new playlists for myself. Amazingly, this either caused or fortuitously coincided with a desire to escape my apartment in athletic shoes several weeks ago, and I hit the road.
Here are just a few of the tracks in my playlist:
Average White Band, “Soul Searching“
Rihanna, “Only Girl in the World“
Aaron Copland’s “The Promise of Living“
David Bisbal, “Camina y ven“
Most of the Riverdance “Celtic Heartbeat” album
“Spirit Dance” from the ChronoChross soundtrack
“Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat” from The Aristocrats
Astrud Gilberto, “A Certain Sadness“
The National Hockey League Theme
Kirk Franklin, “It’s Raining“
“Flight to Neverland” from the Hook soundtrack
Singers Unlimited, “The Fool on the Hill“
and my personal anthem, perhaps for all time: David Guetta feat. Sia, “Titanium“
It’s pretty random! I find it much more satisfying to travel through all the different influences of my life as I run.
But you want to know what makes a run really fun? Not caring what you look like.
I was nearing my “destination” point of one of my runs, a pond not too far away, and as I began the slight descent towards it, the bridge of “Soul Searching” began to whip into its frenzy to head back to the chorus. For no reason, I felt compelled to speed up. Ignoring my tired body, I ran faster and faster until I was at full Olympic sprint, and when the music finally released, I flung my arms up, gazed at the sky, and breathed deeply as I savored the feeling of freedom. Yep, I was still running at the time, hands above me, a giant grin on my face, and the music pounding in my ears. I am sure I must have received several weird looks from the handful of people around me, but to this day I don’t care.
Which is why sometimes, when I feel particularly pent-up, I dance my run. I’ll skip for a portion, I’ll sync my footsteps to the music, I’ll leap when I feel like it (motivated sometimes by wanton child over a leaf pile and other times by ballerina in class), I’ll swing my hips in a Latin beat, I’ll twirl in a circle, I’ll sprint for 30 feet just because, I’ll throw my hands in the air and dance like my mother, I’ll do a traveling jump rope step – you get the idea. If I feel inspired by the music, I let my body decide how to move. My only rule is to never stop moving.
Admittedly, sometimes I’m less relaxed than others. If the roads are full, like in the evening commuting hours, I generally try to restrain myself to flicking my wrists in time to the beat and tiny jumps over sticks or curbs. And I don’t always feel like dancing; I’ve gone on plenty of run/walks where I was more focused on thinking out a problem or escaping a frustration or just savoring a peaceful moment.
But some days, you gotta dance.
photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/lgh75/2447235168/”>lgh75</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>cc</a>