MELBOURNE MARATHON 2014 PART 1: THE PRE-RACE PLAYLIST

Preparation is key to attaining peak performance when it comes to goal events such as the Melbourne Marathon. Much of it is physical incorporating all the training and recovery which many have found inadequate despite the best intentions and endeavours. What often goes unnoticed though is the mental side, for being physically able to do something as demanding as a marathon means nothing if the mind isn’t willing to co-operate.

The songs in this list are found here!

With this in mind I’m willing to share my pre-race preparation with you before going into detail of what happened on the course on Sunday Morning. In the past and for training sessions I have often just found a radio station, either music or talk, and tuned in as the legs kept pumping and the kilometres kept ticking over. For the marathon however I dipped into my vast array of music spanning 6 decades and many of which you’ll never hear on commercial radio (and much of which the kids of today wouldn’t understand, they tend to have their minds destroyed by dumb songs from talent less hacks singing about bass which makes me want to flush my head down the toilet).

So below is a list of songs that I had played on my iPod Nano 5th generation (for those that want to know, $160 well spent) on the morning of the 12th of October 2014. First song was played at 4:35AM, the last concluded approximately 7:45AM. Many of these songs were repeated, so if a number appears after the song this indicates how many times I played the song that morning. The order which these songs appear doesn’t necessarily indicate the order which I played them in.

•  Moby – Lift Me Up (8 times, the most played song in my collection. Also played this song multiple times last year)
• Van Halen – Dreams (3 times, played this song at least 5 times prior to City2Surf this year)
• Kelly Clarkson – Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) (3 times, strange choice perhaps given the artist but I’m sure many others may have listened to this plenty of times. Song title often appears as What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger))
• Police – King of Pain (twice, played this 5 times before Canberra. I’m sure others would lay claim to this title the morning after)
• Dropkick Murphy’s – The Boys Are Back (twice, probably the hardest song, beats not actual content, listened to)
• Tinie Temper (feat. Eric Turner) – Written In The Stars (twice, best remembered by British readers as the song to introduce Sky Sports Super Sunday)
• Tom Petty – I Won’t Back Down (often chosen other songs from this artist)
• INXS – Baby Don’t Cry (Unsure why I chose this one, probably so I could cross the footbridge without the need to stop)
• Queen – I Want It All (Was planning this to be the last song prior to the start, turned out I played it earlier than anticipated)
• John Mellencamp – Authority Song (last song played as I entered the start area)

I’m certainly not saying this playlist or the number of times each song is played is for you, personal preferences come into play for this sort of thing. But these songs were what drove me to achieve something pretty special in the Melbourne Marathon this year. Stay tuned this week and I’ll tell you all about the on course activities on Sunday.