The Newport marathon playlist

Music is very important to me when I run, so I knew I needed a very special playlist for the Newport marathon last week. My husband created a playlist for me for Weston Super Half last year, which I loved, so I created a very similar one for Cheltenham half marathon.

But my playlist for Newport had to be even better.

And twice as long.

My previous running playlists had a good mix of artists, with hardly any duplication. This time I knew that I wanted a high proportion of tracks from my two favourite artists – Levellers and Yungblud. But I didn’t know what else I wanted. Then it all slotted into place when I was running a couple of months ago. I was listening to Yungblud and the track god save me, but don’t drown me out came on. It’s quite shouty and it features the line ‘Not gonna waste my life, ’cause I’ve been f*cked up’.

OK, it’s not very polite and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I realised I needed that sort of don’t care, punk attitude to see me round Newport marathon.

So I assembled a list of songs which epitomise that attitude from my two favourite artists, then added similar songs from others. So I had just the attitude I needed to motivate me around 26.2 miles and four hours. (There are also some songs which aren’t punky, but the proportion of tracks with attitude was much higher than usual for me.)

The full playlist was approximately a quarter Levellers, a quarter Yungblud and half other artists. So for most of the marathon, I was listening to one song by the Levellers, followed by one by Yungblud and one or two by someone else. I had the music playing in both ears and loud enough that I could really hear it and feel absorbed by it, but not so loud I couldn’t hear what was going on around me.

At 13 miles, Stick Season came on – a song I became I obsessed with earlier this year. It mentions ‘all the miles combined’, which seems perfect. This was followed by Queen’s Save Me, which I always sing to myself when things go wrong, as it begins ‘It started off so well… ‘. It’s also surprising how many songs have the words ‘run’ or ‘running’ in them, which somehow mean so much more when you’re doing one of the hardest runs of your life. Like Yungblud’s Machine Gun (F**k The NRA), which includes the words ‘You better fuckin’ run, Run run run run’ and says the word ‘run’ over 20 times. Then there’s my old favourite, One Way by the Levellers – ‘I ran from all of this… ‘.

I worked carefully on the order of the tracks, to make sure I didn’t put all my favourite songs at the beginning or the end. I knew how I wanted the playlist to start and end, but had to be careful to get the middle bit right too.

I started with Levellers’ Beautiful Day followed by World Freakshow. I had Beautiful Day playing as I waited for the last few minutes in the starting pen, because I had to be positive and think it was going to be a beautiful day. Then World Freakshow is just a brilliant song and the perfect opening number – the first track of their first album. It was playing as I crossed the start line.

I have a little group of four positive songs I wanted to end on. At this point, I would be moving away from the punky attitude to a triumphant one. To make it work when I was running, I had to cut Smells Like Teen Spirit short and skip Sell Out out completely. My ending started with Katy Perry’s Firework, followed by Lady GaGa’s Edge of Glory. I know it’s not actually about sporting triumphs, but that’s how it feels. I’ve got less than a mile to go on a marathon – I’m definitely on the edge of glory! Then it had to be One Way. I crossed the finish line to We Are The Champions by Queen. Because anyone who can finish a marathon is an absolute champion!

Here, in no particular order, is the perfect tracklisting of my perfect marathon playlist (I’m not a fan of odd use of capital letters, but this grammar is exactly as it is on Spotify):

Levellers: What a Beautiful Day; World Freakshow; Subvert; Generation Fear; Liberty Song; Truth Is; The Likes of You & I; 15 Years; The Game; Belarus; Far From Home; England My Home; Food Roof Family; Calling Out; Battle of the Beanfield; Outside Inside; Burning Hate Like Fire; Sell Out; One Way

Yungblud: Doctor Doctor; I Love You, Will You Marry Me; strawberry lipstick; Memories; The Boy In The Black Dress; Cruel Kids; Don’t Feel Like Feeling Sad Today; Die For The Hype; Machine Gun (F**k The NRA); The Funeral; Psychotic Kids; Kill Somebody; god save me, but don’t drown me out; ice cream man; weird!; charity; Lowlife

The Wonder Stuff: Give, Give, Give Me More, More More; Radio Ass Kiss; Here Comes Everyone; Let’s Be Other People; Can’t Shape Up; 30 Years In The Bathroom

New Model Army: The Hunt; Better Than Them; Vagabonds; 225

Queen: Now I’m Here; Save Me; We Are The Champions

Noah Kahan: Homesick; Stick Season

REM: Drive; Radio Song

Pulp: Do You Remember The First Time?; Babies

Travis: Turn; Side

Ned’s Atomic Dustbin: Grey Cell Green

The Killers: Mr Brightside

Chumbawamba: Give the Anarchist a Cigarette

Therapy?: Screamager

Coldplay: Viva La Vida

Oasis: Rock ‘n’ Roll Star

The Cranberries: Zombie

Nirvana: Smells Like Teen Spirit

Katy Perry: Firework

Lady GaGa: The Edge of Glory