Jul 4, 2010
Podcasting is a media so perfectly suited for the running
lifestyle. Just as we schedule our runs in advance, we can
schedule what we listen to ON those runs, in advance.
We can multi-task the time we spend out on the roads and by
listening to a podcast, exercise our brains and feel a camaraderie
with the podcast host or producer: especially hosts and producers
who are fellow runners like the podcasters you just heard: real
people with a shared passion for this sport we love so well.
When I first started producing this goofy little podcast about
running, five years ago, the idea of clipping on a microphone and
apparently talking to yourself while out on a long run seemed like
a ridiculous idea; but today there are over 70 running podcasts
listed on the runningpodcasts.org directory! This idea of
recording a podcast and listening to other podcasters completes a
mode of communication and conversation not possible with
traditional old media; such as radio (for example).
The other really cool thing about podcasting is that it allows
for the artistic expression of thoughts, opinions, and observations
of our lives. You know me as a middle aged, middle of the
pack, slightly asthmatic runner from New England who appreciates
good wine, like Bordeaux, Malbec and Cab Franc, who enjoy’s a great
baseball game with the Worcester Tornadoes or my beloved Boston Red
Sox, and likes to rock out to amazing music, like that from Great
Big Sea, Jim Fidler, Matthew Ebel or the amazing Paul Durham and
Black Lab…these are all elements of my life that you’ve heard on
this show: when I’m tasting or talking about wine and telling you
about the grapes I’m trying to grow, when you hear me at the old
ball park singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” or when I present
for you some amazing creative commons pod-safe music on every
episode of this show.
I think that’s one of the things I most appreciate about
running podcasts; that they’re NOT always just about running:
they’re about the lives each of the podcasters are living: it’s
better than so called reality TV because there’s no pretense
involved: we are who we are, for better or worse: but we have this
one thing in common: a love for running and for living our lives to
the top.
These podcasts we produce are a permanent record of these
lives we are living; audio files that will be heard long after you
and I have run our last road race, and shuffled off this mortal
coil. They are important because they document the way to
live as the good animals we were meant to be; and it sets a good
example to anyone who listens now, and in the far future: of how to
live a life of meaningful joy.
That’s why we produce these shows…because I’m telling you this
fellow runner: something you already know deep in your heart but
something that we have somehow GOT to get across to others, be it
through personal examples or a moving pictures expert group
dash 1 audio layer 3 standard digital encoding formatted file
downloaded to your iPod:
Life is short, but it should be long enough and to take to the
roads and become a runner is one certain way to live that life to
the top: which is exactly what is expected of us all.
Show
Links:
The song “The Real You” was by Black Lab at http://blacklabworld.com