Running, writing, and rap

Writers running, and then writing about running, seems so common it's probably a cliche. But there does seem to be good reasons why the two activities go well together.

I started running in October last year. Well, actually September last year, but a week heading out in ancient Nikes with no arch support meant I knackered my back and had to start again a month later, when walking didn't cause step-by-step electric shocks of pain. 

I'd been put off running for years by a sentence that seems to come up whenever there's news about marathons on the radio or telly: 'collapsed with a formerly undetected underlying heart condition'. But when I realised the groaning noises I made whenever I had to get out of a chair were no longer purely ironic, I figured it was time to start living dangerously and began a couch to 5k programme.

And right from the start I felt I liked running for the same reasons I like writing.


By and large they're things you do on your own, and the sole entry requirement to declare yourself a runner or writer is that you actually do it. How far or fast you run, and how much or how well you write, isn't that relevant. Completing a marathon in 6 hours, or writing a novel that even your own parents might suggest drags a bit is less important than the fact you've done it at all. The battles you're fighting largely take place in your own head.



With both, I'm not sure I fancy doing it before I start, and can find it a bit of a slog as I go, but when I'm through I'm glad I've done it.  And if I'm not doing it, I miss it.

A difference between running and writing for me, is I like to listen to music when I'm running. When I started out I found it really helped to listen to hip-hop (I realise admitting that makes me sound like Phil Dunphy from Modern Family, but I've made my peace with that). The music helps keep me focused -- the aggression, the arrogance, the general fuck-you attitude.

It's just the kind of thing you need when you're first doing a one minute run at a moderate pace followed by a five minute walk to recover.  Then repeating.

I also find rap keeps my mind occupied -- you don't notice the hills so much when you're wrestling with whether or not it's possible to be socially liberal while listening to songs that might not be at the forefront of gender or sexual orientation politics. There can be references to murdering police officers, exploiting drug addicts and other vulnerable members of society, and using violence and intimidation in various ways in day-to-day life for shallow material gain and I lap it up. But just one misplaced 'bitch' or 'faggot' and I'm all 'ooh that's inappropriate'.

Kilometres can go by while I dissect and reconcile my feelings about 99 Problems or Deep Cover.

One of the best things with both activities is you can look back and see how far you've come: the incremental rise of the word count, the number of miles clocked on RunKeeper. The new writing project I started last autumn is finally at a point where the number of words written makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere. I've run a few hundred miles now too, and I can definitely feel the effects.

My back is killing me again -- time to get some more shoes...