Against All Odds
Ghostly 5ks are back?! Boy Howdy!
LISTEN, I KNOW OCTOBER IS IN 2 DAYS BUT JUST LIKE BIRTHDAY GREETINGS FROM YOUR FRIENDS AND POSTCARDS FROM ABROAD AND TEXT MESSAGE REPLIES FROM YOUR CRUSH- THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS BETTER LATE THAN NEVER:
WE ARE BACK AGAIN WITH ANOTHER YEAR OF OCTOBER GHOSTLY 5KS, BABY!
Okay, it’s official. This is the latest Power of the Playlist Ghostly 5k Announcement in our 6-year history of doing this. I will apologize in a second but let’s just take a moment here-
6 YEARS? S-I-X YEARS HAVE PASSED? WE HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR SIXXXXXX YEARS? Well, technically no, technically this year is the 6th year. But still! 6 years! That’s wild. What a journey it’s been.
Every year after I do this, I think: “Wow, next year when we do this, I’m going to have been a regular runner for a whole year! 5k’s will be like NOTHING to me.” And every fall, I’m humbled by the fact that I have not, in fact, become a “regular runner” since October 31 of the year before. Not even a little bit! Just like last October, I’m starting over, yet again. Square one. Couch to 5k. And yet? Just like last year, I’m excited to do the thing. To see if I actually can do the thing. To encourage other people doing the thing. It’s wild and it’s wacky and it’s fun and it’s challenging! But I love the community that gets formed through this strange and sensational event!
And I’m going to need that community this year- for real. The reason I’m so late to post about this year’s 5ks is because I’ve been working so much lately that I barely have down time for leisure. But when a friend of mine gently asked if I was doing the 5ks again this October, I said, “of course!” Because I have the naive ambition of a contestant on the Great British Bake Off who thinks that they can bake a showstopper cake with handmade chocolate decorations AND macarons in the allotted time. Like every busy fall before this one, I will make it work. The beauty of these 5ks is that I’m actually always too busy to do them, which is exactly why I have to do them. Fall is my favorite season: it’s gorgeous, it smells good, it is PERFECT running/walking weather and if I don’t make myself do this ridiculous event, I just might miss out on all that! So yes, it’s last minute, but yes, we are still doing the thing! Tell your friends, tell your parents, and for sure tell your crush.
For the curious, uninitiated, or forgetful, I will to go over the event and what its deal is and then drop this year’s list of 5ks. (If you’re already on board and just wanna see the 5ks and sign up sheet, scroll!) INTRIGUED?! READ ON!
WHY DO YOU DO THIS?
For those of you who are brand new to this endeavor or the Power of the Playlist Zine, I’ll give you a quick intro: My name is Frances and I edit an online music zine called The Power of the Playlist. The Power of the Playlist is a zine about our relationships with playlists/mix cds/mixtapes (although broadly speaking, it’s about the stories we infuse into the music we love).
For the last few years, I’ve hosted two playlist-oriented “events” : 1 ) in October, the “Ghostly 5Ks” event is a series of DIY 5K fun-runs with corresponding playlists, and 2) in February, the “Blind Date with a Mix” event in which people submit a dating-ad description of one of their playlists that others read and choose from and then come Valentine’s Day, participants receive an artist-designed Valentine with a link to the playlist of their choice. Why do these things? Mostly because it’s fun for me. I love making and planning things, especially if there’s music involved. Secondly, I love the feeling of connecting with people in tangible ways through/over/about music.
WHY 5Ks?
Uh. This is a three-pronged answer.
A. The 5k is my favorite unit of exercise.
3.1 miles is a challenging but also manageable distance. I also find, that regardless of whether I walk or run or do a combo of both, I really feel a sense of accomplishment after which feels nice! After a month of regular 5ks, maybe a habit will be formed or maybe people will feel confident about going longer distances or signing up for a “real” race!
B. Why a running event at all?
This honestly began as a personal project to get myself back into running and when I realized that making themed playlists for made up fun-runs might be something others would find funny/fun, I decided to make it a bigger thing. The idea was to add some levity to running and exercise in general. Also, it’s nice to have an exercise routine that doesn’t require you to pay for/get to the gym. That said, going for a run (or walk or bike ride) can be very intimidating, especially if it’s not usually your thing. Turning that experience into your very own type of “Turkey Trot” sounds like less of a slog than “going for a run.” The playlists are silly and weird, which keeps things interesting and keeps people from having to make their own playlist before heading out the door (a task that has paralyzed me from going for a run on more than one occasion). If they work for you, great! If you’d rather listen to the dulcet tones of Ira Glass as you run/walk/bike/etc, then that’s great too!
C. What’s the endgame here?
I guess introducing people to new music, creating community, and maybe getting people into running? I don’t have a moralizing fitness agenda or work for “Big Running” or anything like that. I owe a lot of the inspiration for this series to Hilken Mancini and Punk Rock Aerobics for imagining a new and different way to think about and do exercise (and combining it with her love for music) and then making it happen. I think running/walking can be a beneficial experience for many people, but I also think a lot of people, like myself, have a very hard time imagining themselves as a “runner” or whatever. The Ghostly 5ks enable me to reimagine running by sanctifying the mundane. By the end, it’s hard not to see yourself as a runner (or jogger/walker/cyclist/etc)!
I’M INTRIGUED BUT I:
A. HATE RUNNING
That’s okay! You don’t have to run them if you don’t want! You wanna bike? You wanna swim? You wanna walk that amount while doing disc golf? GO FOR IT. As long as you’re doing the thing and it’s giving you a sense of accomplishment, that’s all the matters.
B. DON’T HAVE THE TIME TO DO ALL OF THE 5Ks
That’s okay! Why not do as many as you can? It’s okay if it’s not all 20. More than 0 is still going to feel good.
C. DON’T THINK I CAN RUN A FULL 5K ONCE, NEVERMIND 20 TIMES
That’s okay! First, there’s no pressure to run the full 3.1 miles- walking 3.1 miles is still doing a 5k! If you want to run a 5k eventually, there are a ton of great resources online that help you train for running a 5k (search “couch to 5k”) and you are welcome to use these weekly “races” to build up to that goal! I’ve found this training program to be really helpful and doable!
D. WANT TO DO MY OWN LIST OF 20 FUN-RUNS, NOT YOURS.
Go for it! I think that sounds rad! Tell me what they are! I want to know everything! Send me your playlists for them! I’m happy, if you’re happy, dude!
OKAY, OKAY, WHAT ARE THIS YEAR’S 5Ks?
Another year, another list of 20 things I love enough to do a fun-run in their honor. Last year, we had a lot of fun with fictional geographies (in fact, if you guys wanna send me a love letter about how absolutely otherworldly every hand-designed map I made was…you are allowed and encouraged to do so!) but this year we return to the form.
You can choose to run these same 5ks, or make your own list, or pick and choose throughout the month from this list and the one you make! Some of these titles may seem confusing at first, but don’t you worry: the weekly emails will explain all.
Week 1:
Let’s Rock, Let’s Rock Today 5k
Yapping 5k
Cozy Mystery 5k
Normal Gossip 5k
Week 2:
Cheese Plate 5k
Fresh Sheets 5k
Moxie 5k
Crafting 5k
LOST (2004) 5k
Week 3:
Soft Serve 5k
Soup Mode 5k
Dave’s Birthday 5k
Seasonal Soap 5k
Week 4
Dumb Luck 5k
Beach Read 5k
Sarah’s Birthday 5k
Steph’s Birthday 5k
Week 5
Little Treat 5k
Physical Photos 5k
Space 5k
ALRIGHT, I WANT TO DO THE THING. WHAT DO I DO?
Sign up here! Link to sign up.
EMAIL ME ANY QUESTIONS & SUBSCRIBE BELOW!
Until next time!
Peace, Love, and Playlists,