Ride the Wild Surf and other great music

SACRAMENTO, THE AMERICAN RIVER PARKWAY - The Fat Boy program is working, slowly, and I have to thank my IPod for a good part of it.

I hate running. Like the late comedian W.C. Fields, for most of my life when I felt the urge to exercise, I would go lie down on a couch until it passed.

But too much beer, chips, tortillas, margaritas, fried fish, broiled fish, rice, carne asada, tacos, hamburguesas and papas fritas (French-fried potatoes) put enough weight on that I had to diet and (Ugh!) exercise. And so I did start hitting the running/cycling trail along the American River the first week in April when it became obvious that the vegetarian, light-on-the-starch, forget-the-cookies-and-sweets diet wasn't going to do it. Not unless I was willing to give up the 34 waist and just buy some other clothes.

Mille fois merde!

So for the first couple of weeks, I pounded along the path, timing myself with a stopwatch (Who can run just to, well, run?). Alone with my thoughts, I thought, What are you doing?

But then the IPod came into my life, part of a package deal with my new, souped-up Apple IBook, with a playist I created called "Run Like The Wind." Jan and Dean (Ride, Ride,
Ride the Wild Surf), Travis Tritt (Girls Gone Wild), Mason Williams (Classical Gas) and a dozen more songs push me like the devil was behind me. (Oh, The Devil Went Down to Georgia played by the Charlie Daniels band is on the list, too.) I'm not sure I would still be out there three days a week wearing out a new pair of running shoes if I didn't have the music to look forward to. (Maybe those Kenyans running in the marathons hear some kind of inspiring celestial music. It sure as hell isn't The Lion Sleeps Tonight, zzzzzz...)

After completing about 10 runs with this list though, I'm going to rejigger it with some new music. Maybe Dire Straits' Walk of Life, Irene Cara's Fame, and the Pointer Sisters' I'm So Excited. Oh, and Call Me by Blondie. I need to get some of that inspiration loaded onto the 20GB hard drive before tomorrow morning when I lace up the shoes and face not only the running trail/bike path, but the hot weather that's predicted.

That or say the hell with it and take a nap with a bag of cookies in my lap.

Quelle dommage!

Et mille fois merde, redux.