I’ve been playing around with my Running playlist, and I never delete this song. I don’t ever get sick of it when it cycles through, even if I’ve gone on an especially long run and it’s the third time I am hearing the song. And this has nothing to do with the fact that the very first concert I ever attended was a Scandal show (at the time, “The Warrior” was the big hit — I think they played that song twice).
“Goodbye To You” by Scandal is just an all around great running song that does exactly what a tried and true running song should do — it makes you want to straighten up your back, kick up your knees, pick up your pace, and most of all, just enjoy the fuck out of a good, long, hard run. Getting to that place is pretty easy at mile 3, but at mile 9, or 12, or 15, it can feel downright impossible.
The lyrics can be taken literally given your quick paced, forward movement — you can see yourself pass by mental images of the things that are dragging you down and bugging the shit out of you. One by one you pick off these annoying elements carrying too much weight in your thoughts, and as you run by them, you can say, or sing, “Goodbye to you.” The combined lack of oxygen, sore muscles and back, and adrenaline rush you are experiencing as you put one step in front of the other leads to some rather ridiculous visualizations.
That cinnamon roll I ate for breakfast yesterday, the one with all that frosting — goodbye to you.
That shithead(s) co-worker at work who doesn’t know jackshit and has no problem wasting all my time — goodbye to you.
Those four slices of pizza I ate for lunch the other day — goodbye to you.
That fucking idiot runner who just spit without looking to see if anyone was coming up behind him and almost hit my leg — goodbye to you.
That minor, insignificant squabble that happened years ago but nonetheless pops into my head every once in a while and sidetracks my whole thought process — goodbye to you.
That project at work that is making me grind my teeth — goodbye to you.
Those five miles I have left to run — goodbye to you (I wish!)
That novel I’m supposedly writing that I haven’t done anything on — goodbye to you.
That rude person that just did that really rude thing and was so rude they thought I was the one being rude — goodbye to you.
That whole facebook thing — goodbye to you.
Those five (or seven?) beers I drank the other night — goodbye to you. (or perhaps, hello to you, after I finish the run).