Running

Social media memories are the worst, right? So there I am, minding my own business by casually snooping into other people’s, reaching for the shortbread biscuits, still in the clothes I slept in, when I’m suddenly reminded: “Hey, remember twelve months ago when you had a gym membership and liked to run? Remember? You did it like every other day, building up your stamina and improving that cardio. You even made it to running a solid 5k in just under half an hour. That was great, right? You remember?”

Nothing like a moderately active past to shame your lazy present. Couple this in with the various marathons, half-marathons and other distance running events for the everyday person that happen to pop up around this time and I’m finding myself wondering: “Do I really want to run again?”

The answer to that is: “Sure! Why not? That was fun. And hey, maybe I could be in one of those average-Joe distance runs soon too!” But the reality is more realistic than that. I mean, pretend world has me becoming a pro running enthusiast with the gear and fitness, but the real world has biscuits and beds and Netflix. The real world also only gives you two options for training to run:

One – Do it in public on actual streets, or
Two – Do it on a treadmill in a gym you have to pay for.

Right now, I’m not liking either of these options and am deferring a decision on this to Future Me, who also still has to sort out how to go about getting a mortgage and whether or not he’ll get that golden Labrador called Charlie who doesn’t shit all over the new house he doesn’t have yet.

Despite putting things off, though, Present Me seems to be catching up to Future Me and very soon, Present will become Future and all those things will have to be dealt with. This is further reason why a Future Me should start thinking about running again, just so Present Me doesn’t actually catch up any time soon.

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For a piece of music that’s wordless and (to these untrained ears at least) sticks around about the same tonal area all the way through, I bloody love this. It’s a great execution of fuzzy electronics quickly and repeatedly thumping that essentially creates a percussive beat that I find interesting anyway.

In a way, I almost think the visuals on this video distract from the sound. As lovely as the animation of fireflies and tumbling through the endless void of space is (spoiler alert btw), I feel that this would somewhat be better suited to that visualisation one neon-coloured hairline circles that pulsate randomly that came bundled into Windows Media Player on XP, but then again, that’s just me.

Jon Hopkins – Emerald Rush