REINVENTING A VINYL RUNNER IN A DIGITAL WORLD

765 Miles To Go

If all goes as planned, Sunday, October 20, 2013 will mark the 14th time I've toed a marathon starting line.

I've trained by myself, with partners, my dog and organized groups. I've meticulously gauged runs in miles, minutes and heart rate data.

My mantra has been: "Minutes make the miles; miles make the workouts; workouts make the weeks; weeks make the months; and months make the marathon."

Nearly all of those training periods started with a common goal - work hard enough and smart enough to make a run at qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

For most of those runs, music has been a part of the routine, sometimes an iPod on shuffle, sometimes a playlist, sometimes nothing but songs from a single artist.

This time, I've got a new training strategy, not measured exclusively in miles and minutes, but in albums and random thoughts about those songs. My plan is to select a record before each run and go until it's finished.

Write about the record and tick off the miles. Then, repeat - just not the same album.

Call it a journey through the past with eyes and ears on the future, all the while building a playlist for a Sunday run at glory this fall.

In the words of Willie, "I can't wait to get on the road again."