Artist: Pink Floyd
Song: Run Like Hell
Album: The Wall
Year: 1979
Beats per minute: 116
Recommended for: Anywhere in the last hour of a marathon
If you can have a running playlist without this Pink Floyd classic, then … well, I don’t want to know you. I mean, seriously!
I like “Run Like Hell” for late in a marathon, just when you’re starting to break down mentally and physically. As this 1979 rocker begins, you get a hint of stadium applause with a single electric guitar, lightly picked. With that playing in the background, picture yourself approaching the finish line, the crowd cheering for you while your feet lightly pick along the asphalt.
Enter the bass guitar and drums to keep you pumping with a solid “Bum, ch-ba-bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum” that sets a steady 116 beats per minute rhythm. A tad slow, perhaps, but it’s about right for the “marathon shuffle.”
Then … the lyrics kick in:
“Run, run, run, run
“Run, run, run, run
“Run, run, run, run
“Run, run, run, run”
Yeah, the first 16 words of the song are “Run.” From there, it pretty much describes how you look and feel from mile 20 on in a marathon.
“You better make your face up in
Your favourite disguise.
With your button down lips and your
Roller blind eyes.
With your empty smile
And your hungry heart.
Feel the bile rising from your guilty past.
“With your nerves in tatters
As the cockleshell shatters
And the hammers batter
Down the door.
You’d better run.”
Catch a breath. Focus. Feel the steady, pounding bass while the guitar riff picks your feet up a little bit more.
“DOO D-DOOT DO DOOOO,
DOO D-DOOT DO DOOOO,
DOO D-DOOT DO DOOOO,
D-DOOT DOOT DO DOOOO”
Keep your head up. Keep breathing. Believe in yourself. Keep moving forward.
“Run, run, run, run
“Run, run, run, run
“Run, run, run, run
“Run, run, run, run”
After the second chorus, the lyrics take a bit of a perverse twist into a Freudian momma’s-boy guilt trip, which is the basis for the entire album The Wall. But let’s not concern ourselves with overbearing mothers. This marathon is a big enough mother. Let’s just focus on the need to break through “the wall” and get to the finish line as fast as possible.
Pink Floyd can get you there. That beat is relentless. And when the song has finished playing, the only things you’ll recall are the only ones that matter, that rock-steady beat and those 16 words that will drive you to the finish.
“Run, run, run, run
“Run, run, run, run
“Run, run, run, run
“Run, run, run, run”
What’s your go-to song at the end of a challenging run?
Note: For a pacing song, I prefer the original studio recording of “Run Like Hell,” but for fun and spectacle right now, enjoy this live version.
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