To the Mountains!

A quick admin note: if you missed the previous post, there's still time to enter the CLIF bar giveaway drawing before the winners are picked on Sunday evening. Thanks to everyone who has entered so far; the response has been fantastic.

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“Walking along in this haze of confusion-
Sometimes I can laugh but sometimes it takes all of my strength-
Just to find enough reason to take the next step-
But I will, but I will, till I do.”
- Dave Matthews Band, “Eh Hee” (video after post)

I don’t know why my mind tends to gravitate towards Dave Matthews songs before an ultra … but I also know that it probably wouldn’t do much good for me to question it. Consequently, my road trips to races almost invariably feature a DMB concert disc to occupy my thoughts before the big event.

What’s different in this case is that the race isn’t even mine – although I’d argue that covering 50 miles of trails with 12,000’ of climbing still qualifies as an “ultra-ish” effort, even if it’s merely as a pacer. Nevertheless, the above song has been on a continuous mental loop for the past couple of days – and since it’s been a while since the last music post, that’s what you’re getting today.

Unfortunately, the official video is restricted and unembeddable, but the following clip is nearly as cool: it gives you a good feel for the song - including the verse in the above into, which is one of many lyrics that make me swear Dave Matthews must have been an ultrarunner in another life – as well as an interesting story of its origin.

Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, “Eh Hee,” excerpted (click to play):




And if you’d like a full sampling of the song, you can follow this link to see Dave and Tim crank it out (parental and/or work warning: there's one F-bomb).

That’s all for this morning; the mountains are calling, and I must go. Eh Hee!