Wednesday, September 19, 2012

10 Days Until Terror Strikes!


Know what today marks?  10 days.  10 days until the Tower of Terror 10-Miler.

TEN days.

Eeeeeek!!!

Suffice it to say I’m not feeling ready for it at all.  Still battling IT Band Syndrome, I did manage to complete 8 miles last weekend, my final long “run” of pre-race training… but I walked a huge chunk of it, only managed a 14:22/mile average pace, and by the end, my knee contained David Banner-like fury (though it did not turn green, thankfully.)  It wasn’t the kind of training run that elicits a sense of comfort and “Yeah, I’ve got this!” y’know? 

So I’ve been spending time focusing on the race planning elements that have nothing to do with running in order to distract my mind from thoughts of gloom and doom.  For starters, my race outfit.

I’m not doing a full-on costume – I’m all about comfort and I’m not very good at costuming in the first place.  I’ve known for a while that I want to wear my Badass Mother Runner tank and decided to add a skirt from Team Sparkle to wear over my go-to running skort.  Add on a matchy BondiBand to wick away forehead sweat and – voila!  My outfit is complete.

I may not be fast, and I may not even be able to run much, but by golly – I’ll look festive!

I’ve also spent lots of time putting together a special playlist for the race.  When I realized how much I’ll be walking, I knew I’d need more music loaded in, so what I wound up with is a mix of creepy, dark, themed sounds with a few pieces that are outside of the theme, but are proven pick-me-ups when the going gets tough.  Since I can’t count on maintaining a certain pace, I gave up on sequencing the playlist and I’ll just let it shuffle.  Here it is, all shuffled up:

Agent Orange: “A Cry for Help in a World Gone Mad”
London Philharmonic: “Carmina Burana, O Fortuna”
Social Distortion: “The Creeps”
Ray Parker, Jr.: “Ghostbusters”
Queen Latifah & L’il Kim, Feat. Macy Gray: Cell Block Tango”
Madonna: “Die Another Day”
Metallica: “Enter Sandman”
Daft Punk: “Derezzed”
Nin Inch Nails: “Sin”
Tones on Tail: “Go!”
Pitbull: “Back in Time” (from Men in Black III)
Green Day: “Brain Stew”
Marilyn Manson: “The Beautiful People”
Kanye West: “Gold Digger” (don't judge - it's got the perfect rhythm!)
Cee Lo Green: “Love Gun”
Nirvana: “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
Daft Punk: “End of Line”
“Halloween” main theme
Red Hot Chili Peppers: “Higher Ground”
The Cult: “Fire Woman”
Blondie: “Rapture”
MC Hammer: “U Can’T Touch This”
Nine Inch Nails: “Head Like a Hole”
Eurythmics: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)”
Danny Elfman: “Mission Impossible” main theme
Florence & the Machine: “Dog Days are Over”
Michael Sembello: “Maniac” (because Flashdance was totally badass)
Marilyn Manson: “This is Halloween”
Girl Talk: “Oh No”
Girl Talk: “Here’s the Thing”
Salt-n-Pepa: “Push It”
Pink Floyd: “Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2”
Metallica: “Master of Puppets”
John Williams: “The Imperial March” (Star Wars) (I'm not into character pics, but if I see Vader? Watch out)
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic: “Danse Macabre, Op. 40”
Danzig: “Mother”
Will Smith: “Men in Black”
Survivor: “Eye of the Tiger” (please - you know it's the BEST motivating song ever!)
Daft Punk: “Arena”
Michael Jackson: “Thriller” (the full version, Vincent Price included, natch)
“X-Files” main theme
Social Distortion: “Mommy’s Little Monster”

I’ve tried it out on a couple runs and it works well.  I just hope “Halloween” doesn’t come up in a particularly dark, empty stretch, as it did the other night… while I was running after dark… all alone… next to a stand of creepy cypress trees… ~shudder~

With my outfit and soundtrack ready to roll, the next planning steps should be easy: scheduling and packing.  10 days – eek… again!

No comments:

Post a Comment