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May 27, 2005
But I'm So Fast When I Blow Past
Supergenius beatmaker Just Blaze sewed up my "best audio surgeon of 2004" award when he sliced a melodramatic piano riff from the title cut of Supertramp's Crime of The Century, implanted it with a massive bass-thump heartbeat, administered several doses of adrenaline, and handed the screaming patient over to Fabolous. Earlier in his rap career, Mr. F-A-B-O-L-O-U-S seemed to enjoy few things more than simply spelling out his own name, but this time around, Fabolous rose to the occasion and opted for a 1-2-3-4 counting workout that nicely pumped up an oddly sparse chorus of drum fills.
The resulting hit was "Breathe". And yeah, this is semi-old news 'cause the song came out well over 6 months ago. Only recently, however, did I come to the realization that not only was "Breathe" one of the best bangers of 2004, it's actually one of the greatest jogging songs I've ever heard. That 85 BPM tempo is a really good pace-setter, and those winded count-offs, constant "Breathe!" exhortations, and speed-boasting lyrics help motivate me to jog along at such a brisk pace that I actually do start imagining that "dudes are wheezin' behind me". I'm probably veering dangerously close to Chariots of Fire territory here, but while listening to "Breathe" several times during the course of my jog this past Monday evening, I managed to cut two whole minutes off of my previous route record. And then on Tuesday evening I squeezed in a few more listens while slicing yet another minute off of Monday's time. Perhaps I'm actually just improving or getting faster or whatever, but listening to "Breathe" really does seem to have a noticeable effect on my running pace. I just hope I don't get completely sick of the song anytime soon!
Or at least not until after June 11th, when I'm going to be running in the 9th Annual NC Triangle Race for the Cure. I've run in a couple of loosely organized Chapel Hill "5K"s over the last 8 months, but this will be my first-ever officially sanctioned race that measures exactly 5 kilometers. I think I heard that this is the biggest 5K in all of North Carolina so I'm expecting a race full of hardcore running geeks, the sort of people that worry a lot more about the number of net carbs in a Powerbar than the motivational value of a Fabolous song. In any case, it should be an interesting experience and I'm looking forward to seeing how I do in a real race scenario.
More importantly, though, the race is a huge fundraiser for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. I can't actually claim to have any close friends or family whose lives have been impacted by breast cancer, but I'm guessing that this might not always be the case in the future, unfortunately. So since I'm already participating in this event, I decided to go ahead and set up a fundraising page with a modest goal of $250.00. If you feel like sponsoring my participation in this race and helping me reach my fundraising goal, please make an online contribution here. Any contribution, no matter how small or large, would be greatly appreciated!
Posted by Tim at May 27, 2005 10:26 PM