You Can Surely Try to Be More Alive

The real countdown starts today. In ninety days I’ll be forty. I’m not as freaked out about it as I expected to be. Physically I feel better than I have at any point in my life. Yes, I need to stretch before and after I exercise, and I’m sore more frequently, and I can’t see as well as I could a decade ago, and I certainly can’t hear as well as I could two decades ago. (Yes: Mom was right about all that blaring Van Halen coming out of my Sony Walkman.) But generally I am in great shape.

After my most recent annual physical my doctor said I was low on B-12, so I’ve started taking one of those each day. He told me to cool it with the baby aspirin every day until I hit 45; said it was too rough on the stomach and that if I’m running fifteen or twenty miles each week there’s just no need for it. So that was nice.

I miss my mom, and — like almost everyone else in the world — I wish I had more money in the bank. But I can’t complain. Life is beautiful.

Here are the tracks I played during my run:

• Matchbox — Beatles, The
  There are not many Beatles songs that work on a run. This one started playing and I decided to give it a chance and it worked well.
• Give the Po’ Man a Break — Fatboy Slim
  This is a great running track.
• My Friend Peter — Alkaline Trio
• Remember the Name — Fort Minor
• Bruises — Chairlift
• Light of Day (live) — Springsteen, Bruce
  This is the perfect song to hear when you start to feel like you’re lagging.
• New Way Home — Foo Fighters
  This has to be one of the top five songs I’ve heard most often while running. It has a perfect pace and the way it gets faster at the end is epic.
• See You Again — Cyrus, Miley
  As far as I know this is the only Miley Cyrus song in my library, but the beat is simply perfect for running.
• Sexy and I Know It — LMFAO
• How’s My Driving, Doug Hastings? — Less Than Jake
  I’ve been listening to this song for so long it’s hard to believe. It’s very short, so I rarely skip it.
• Fraud In The 80’s — Mates Of State (@matesofstate)
  I really love this song. It’s got a great running beat and the lyrics are awesome. The title of this post is from this song.
• 99 Problems — Jay-Z
  I don’t usually listen to much hip-hop/rap, but this song is a good aggressive one to end a run.