Top 20 Running Songs

In an effort to a) get me blogging (I’m very overdue) and b) get me thinking about running on the pavement instead of the treadmill, here are my Top 20 Favorite Running Songs.

Photo: http://www.fotopedia.com/

Special request: If you read this, please send me some of YOUR favorite running songs too!

#20 – “Eye of the Tiger” – Survivor: Yes, I know this one is cliche, but does get the job done, so it’s in my #20 spot.

#19 – “Black Black Heart” – David Usher – This is a GREAT cool down song.

#18 – “Forever” – Chris Brown: Before you start the hate mail, I in no way support this woman-hitting dude. But I like this song. It has a good beat and it reminds me of one of my all-time favorite You Tube videos. (Sidebar: If you don’t love this video, you have no soul.)

#17 – “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit – Fedde Le Grand: Did you think this Detroit girl would not have this on her list?!

#16 – “Remember The Name” – Fort Minor: This song makes me think of Michigan State University football, which, naturally makes me smile.

#15 - “Stronger” – Kanye West: GREAT beat. Good lyrics. Simple enough!

#14 – “Sleepyhead – Passion Pit: Like #15, sometimes it is just about a good beat. This song has one too.

`13 – “Closer” – Ne-Yo: “I just can’t stop” = great lyric for that part of the run where I want to die, but keep going because I know it’ll do me good.

#12 – “The Longest Road” – Morgan Page: The Deadmau5 remix of this song is over 7 minutes long and is a good one for the middle part of the run where I’m just trying to maintain my pace.

#11 – “The Way I Are” – Timbaland: Great running song / great cardio song. Awesome repetitive beat.

#10 – “Bang Bang” – K’Naan & Adam Levine: I heard this one on Sirius one day not too long ago and really like it because it’s so damn catchy. And K’Naan and Adam have such quirky voices that they work well together. This song is just fun and if you’re not having any fun while running, what’s the point?

#9 – “Let It Rock” – Kevin Rudolf / Lil Wayne: For some reason, this song just gets me pumped up!

#8 – “Supermassive Black Hole” – Muse: Nope, I’m not a hipster. I’m not totally in love with their newest album like all the ‘cool kids’ are. I like their older stuff better. And I love that this song has been in a Supernatural episode and in one of the Twilight films. Insert inner-geek comments here.

#7 – “Broken” – UNKLE: Keeping with the inner-geek theme, I heard this in the credits of the latest X-Files film and I loved it immediately. It’s very atmospheric, which is great for when I want to get lost in a song and not think of any pain I may have in my body at that point in my run.

#6 –  “Not Afraid” – Eminem: Duh, of course “Detroit girl” is going to have an Em song on this list too.

#5 - “She Sells Sanctuary – The Cult: Full disclosure here. I run to Keane’s cover of this. Sue me. I love Tom Chaplin’s voice.

#4 – “Whatever” – Our Lady Peace: Quite simply a kick ass ROCK song.

#3 – “Just Say Yes” – Snow Patrol: I could listen to this song on repeat forever. The driving beat is PERFECT for running.

#2 – “Spotlight” – MuteMath: If this song does not make you run faster, I have no idea what song will.

#1 – “Is It Any Wonder?” – Keane: I love this song. So much. I drive fast to it. I run fast to it. Yep, it’s perfection.

What do you think?

Some of the Many Things I’m Thankful For in 2010

Instead of a long write up of all the great things I’m thankful for that happened last year, I’d rather give you a picture show.  Here goes!

My brother-in-law got married in February and I was honored to be a bridesmaid. Here's a pic of my Mom and I.

Jenn, Mel, Kathy and I went to see Bon Jovi on St. Patty's Day. A total blast! I can't think of a more fun way to spend that holiday.

Thanks to fabulous friends on Twitter who made sure I did not miss a good show, Kathy and I got to see Raine Maida and Steve Mazur from Our Lady Peace perform a FREE acoustic set (front and center!) at the Hard Rock Cafe in Detroit the very next day after Bon Jovi. Bliss.

I don't know where to begin here. I blogged about this amazing weekend with Our Lady Peace here: http://lindsaywarren.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/in-this-dreamland-the-kids-are-alright/.

I also blogged about this amazing experience with the co-founders of A Dog's Life Rescue here: http://lindsaywarren.wordpress.com/2010/03/29/a-day-in-l-a-with-a-dogs-life-rescue/

Ahh, my first trip to San Diego was this past March. It was gorgeous!

We celebrated my dear friend Kathy's 30th Birthday in the D. Another epic weekend. No more jello shots for me EVER though! Seriously.

I had a super fun weekend in June in the D with two friends who I met through my favorite TV show, Supernatural - Jenn & Mel. One of them had the courage to get a tattoo while in town (Jenn). You go girl.

We adopted a kitty in 2010! Her name is Lexi and we all love her.

Summer weekends in Toronto are always amazing, especially with best friends. This one in July was no exception.

Bonus summer weekends in Toronto seeing Keane, a most beloved band of mine, front row center, are even better! This concert was the highlight of my summer HANDS DOWN! Here's a picture of their ridiculously talented lead singer, Tom Chaplin, who gave it his ALL that night.

In July, we got our first house! Here we are on our new deck.

And here's our new backyard. I feel so lucky every day!

My www.SupportSupernatural.com website co-founder and wonderful friend Heather and I went to LA in August for the annual A Dog's Life Rescue fundraiser. I love LA!

I'm still humbled by this. Heather and I each received one at the A Dog's Life Rescue fundraiser. Doing animal rescue work does not feel like work to me and to be thanked for it? Icing on the cake!

In October, I met Tim Rice-Oxley from Keane (and his side project Mt. Desolation)!!!!!!!!!!! *Insert fan girl scream here*

2010 was a great year for Metro Detroiters coming together to do a little good for our city. The #backchannel is one fabulous example of that. (Want more info? Get on Twitter and search for #backchannel.)

Our Spartans had an excellent football season and though they may not have won their bowl game, I am so thankful to have spent the end of 2010 in Orlando celebrating New Years and cheering them on!

Now, bring on 2011!

“In This Dreamland The Kids Are Alright.”

Rich, Kathy, Sandy and I with Duncan, Jeremy, Steve and Raine of Our Lady Peace

One thing that I have loved longer than Supernatural and helping animals is music.  One of my favorite bands in the world is Our Lady Peace, a Canadian band (plus one Michigander!) that has been around for about 15 years.  When the opportunity came my way to see my this amazing band play two nights in a row in one of my favorite cities (Toronto) where one of my dearest friends (Kathy) lives, it was a given that Rich and I would be there in a heartbeat.

I knew these two nights of music would be special.  Our Lady Peace wasn’t just touring to promote their latest album Burn Burn.They were playing two full sets of music each night – starting with a full album (Clumsy the first night and Spiritual Machines the second night) and finishing with a mix of a bunch of their other incredible songs.  What I did not know is how refreshed the band would look on stage and that they would sound the BEST I’ve ever heard in the many years I’ve followed them.

Our balcony seats Friday night

We had front row center balcony seats Friday night show at Massey Hall in downtown Toronto. These seats provided us with a nice full view of the stage. It was simply amazing to be taken back in time to 1997 while the band performed Clumsy from start to finish.  Hands down “4 am” was the song highlight of the night for me personally.  Our Lady Peace’s music not only helps me feel close to my dad who passed away in 2003 (He LOVED the band and even owned their first album Naveed before I did!), but this song in particular always makes me think of him.  That night, it brought me to tears.

The crowd must have been in the same frame of mind as me because Massey Hall was on fire that night.  This was, after all, a home town show for Our Lady Peace!

Saturday night, Kathy and Sandy had front row center seats and Rich and I were sitting exactly two rows behind them.  I sat with Rich for the first set and then Sandy was kind enough to trade seats with me for the second set.  This was extra special for me because Kathy and I became friends thanks to Our Lady Peace.  To share the front row with her was a blast!  The best song this night hands down was “If You Believe” from Spiritual Machines.

It sounds cliche, but there was magic at Massey those two nights.

Raine Maida, Massey Hall, Saturday night

Saturday night was when we also had the perk of going backstage after the concert.  Included in the cost for the premium tickets was priceless merchandise from the band, autographs from the band…and the opportunity to have our picture taken with them!  It was so much fun to get a few moments to talk to the band members and thank them for two nights of amazingly good times.

I had a ‘fan girl moment’ too.  Steve, Our Lady Peace’s lead guitar player (the one from Michigan!) remembered me.  :) (And I even got a hug and a kiss on the cheek from him!)  While I do not know any of these guys personally, my impression of them is that they are good people.  The music they make, the philanthropic work they’ve done, the commitment to their families and way they treat their fans is all the proof I need.

It is awesome how life sometimes is just…lucky.  Thanks the wonderful new world of Twitter, I had some really good luck this past Monday.  I came home from a wonderful weekend to post a tweet reliving my “Our Lady Peace weekend.”  An acquaintance who knows what a big fan I am was kind enough to ask me if I was going to see the band perform a FREE acoustic show at the Hard Rock Cafe in Detroit this past Thursday.  I had not even heard about it!  (Thank you, Janet!)

I had not purchased tickets to the concert that night in Detroit because I found out about that particular concert after I purchased tickets to see them in Toronto with Kathy, Sandy and Rich.  Through an AWESOME coincidence, Kathy had scheduled a trip to come visit me this past Wednesday because we were going to see Bon Jovi the very day before this acoustic show was happening…And she would still be in town when it was happening!

Kathy and I - can you tell we're excited?

Kathy is just as big an Our Lady Peace fan me so I had a feeling she *might* want to go to this acoustic show with me (wink, wink).  I sent her an e-mail with a link to the acoustic show with a subject line that simply said, “Any interest?”  You can bet what her response was!  :)

This show was also a real treat for us.  In addition to playing four songs on acoustic guitar (incredible!), the band also took questions from the audience!

Kathy and I both were able to ask questions and Steve and Raine gave us thoughtful answers.  We were on Cloud Nine!  My question was: “What song off your latest album is the most meaningful to you?”  Raine’s answer was “Paper Moon.”  He and Steve performed it in their acoustic set!

But…it gets better!  With a little bit of luck (and some very kind people), we got on the guest list for the concert that evening at the Fillmore!!!!!!  We dashed back to my condo after the acoustic show ended and Kathy immediately changed her travel arrangements.  There was no way either of us were passing up free tickets to see our favorite band again!

Thanks to general admission floor tickets, we were able to stand right up against the railing in front of the stage and enjoy another amazing night of music.  The highlight of the Clumsy evening at the Fillmore was “Car Crash.”  It is such a powerful song and that night it was UNREAL.

Thursday night at the Fillmore

A great concert makes time stand still.  We were fortunate enough to experience this FOUR TIMES in the last week.

Thank you, Our Lady Peace.

Excerpt from “Dreamland” by Our Lady Peace:

“In this dreamland the kids are alright
And the sky is blue.
We all got wings,
And know how to fly.
I made it to the moon.

The sun on my face,
My head in the clouds,
Time on my side,
My feet off the ground.
I’m not comin’ down.
I’m not comin’ down.
I’m not comin’ down.
I’m not comin’ down.”