NYC Marathon Playlist

One of my largest viewed posts from last year was my playlist for the Boston Marathon.  One of the things I love doing for all my races is to make a specialized playlist that flows with the specific course that I'm about to run.  I get completely into the playlist and know where I should be down to the minute.  I add up the time of the song and my pace and make the playlist for what is needed for the course.  For example, if on mile 15 there is a big hill coming up, I want a fast paced song to help get me up the hill.  Or if there is a downhill section where I want to control myself and not go too fast, I'll put a slower song to help reel me back in.  And of course, no playlist is complete without the standard Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift pick me up and smile song at just the right time.

So without further ado, below is my NYC Marathon Playlist and the course map so you can see where I'll be at an exact time a certain song comes on.

NYC Marathon Elevation

Playlist:

Dont Wake Me Up- Chris Brown

Where Them Girls At- David Guetta

Al About That Bass- Meghan Trainor

Domino-Jesse J

Turn Me On- David Guetta

Fancy- Iggy Azalea

Dont Tell Em- Jeremih

Brokenhearted- Karmin

Wild Wild Love- Pitbull

Sick of Being Lonely- FieldMob

Dark Horse- Katy Perry

Up in Da Club- 50 Cent

Break Your Heart- Taio Cruz

Fancy Footwork-Chromeo

Airplanes- BoB

Wild Ones- Flo Rida

Without You- David Guetta

Right Now- Rihanna

Rather Be- Clean Bandit

Timber- Kesha

Bailando- Enrique Iglesius

Break Free- Ariana Grande

Hate it or Love it- 50 Cent

Lose Yourself- Eminem

Raise Your Glass- Pink

Price Tag- Jesse J

Whistle- Flo Rida

The Anthem - Good Charlotte

Beggin- Madcom

Pump It Up- Joe Budden

Play Hard- David Guetta

Bardon Bellas from Pitch Perfect

This is How We Do- Katy Perry

The Resolution- Jack's Mannequin

Magic- BoB

Dont Stop Believing- Journey

Good Feeling- Flo Rida

Keep on Keeping On- Travie McCoy

Black Widow- Iggy Azalea

Titanium- David Guetta

Shake it Off- Taylor Swift

The Man- Aloe Blacc

Let it Roll- Flo Rida

My Time- Fabolous

Rest of My Life- Ludacris

Empire State of Mind- Jay-z

Dynamite- Taio Cruz

Cant Hold Us- Macklemore

Talk Dirty- Jason Derulo

Payphone- Maroon 5

Give Me Everything- Pit Bull

Club Can't Handle Me- Flo Rida--- This is the song I should cross the finish line to if I'm on pace

Call Me Maybe- Miley Cyrus 

I was recently informed of something cool that I am going to take part in and am very excited.  

I log my road miles using CharityMiles. If you haven't heard of CharityMiles, it's a great app that allows you to log miles and in doing so, any given brand, company, or corporation will donate money for the miles you logged. For every mile I run, 25¢ is donated to whichever charity I choose for that run. It doesn't seem like a lot of money, but it's pretty cool if you think about it. The more you use the app, the more miles you log, the more money goes to the charity you specify.

About a month ago I received an email about this exciting opportunity to run for the Timex ONE Relay. What is the Timex ONE Relay? It's a month long relay. The miles run move from city to city, starting in Chicago and ending in NYC. It's an 800-mile relay!  Timex Sports is working with CharityMiles to do even more. They are organizing and sponsoring the Timex One Relay, an unprecedented 800 mile, 22-day journey featuring more than 100 runners and spanning the Chicago and NYC Marathons to help raise funds for deserving charities. The relay kicks-off on October 9th. For every mile traveled between Chicago and New York, Timex will donate $100 to one of those designated charities.  I'll be raising money for the Achilles International Foundation. 

What they are also doing is launching the Timex One GPS+ watch which is a new GPS watch that is pretty cool.  Something cool about the watch is you can send messages to the watch.  As a result, you can follow the progress of the Timex One Relay on Facebook, Twitter and at onerelay.timex.com Runners will be wearing the new Timex IronMan One GPS+ watch. So, you can track the relay progress in real-time and to send messages of encouragement directly to the runners, who will receive them on their watch along the route.

I will be running the NYC leg of the relay on October 30th when the relay finishes up in NYC right before I run the NYC Marathon.  Check out this great relay every day and track it's progress.  I'm excited to be part of it

Family Traditions

The family pickers

One of the things that I have started to really enjoy is to continue on family traditions.  Every one who knows me knows that I am not a sentimental person, I am not someone who gets emotional, gooey or anything like that.  But thinking about my childhood, there were things that I grew up doing that I now want to pass on with my family and having Riley do them.

One of those things is Apple Picking in the Fall.  When I was younger, my family would go to this one Apple Orchard every year and pick apples.  We would spend an entire day there, packing a lunch, having a picnic, picking apples, sometimes thrown a ball around.  Those days were just awesome.  I remember them so well.  A few years ago, the wife and I started apple picking again.  While it was fun, there was something missing about it.

A few weeks ago, we took Riley apple picking.  Not just the wife and I, but the whole family.  grandma, Grandpa, and Auntie.  The best part is it is the same orchard that I went to as a child. So not only did we continue with the tradition, but we continued it at the same place.  This orchard allows you to climb trees, eat as many apples as you want in the orchard and then you just pay for what you take out.  We went last year, but Riley was way too young to enjoy it.   Not this year.  This year he was running around the trees, picking apples from trees, helping Grandpa fill his bag.

Sometimes its the little things that I enjoy, and this was definitely one of those.  Yes, apple picking is fun, but knowing that my son is doing the same thing I did 30 plus years ago makes it all that much more special.  I can't wait to continue to do other traditions with Riley and the family.

How many apples can I fit into my mouth

Grandpa I got one!

Dad, can we get this pumpkin please?