Welcome to the first post of a series exploring the bizarre, illuminating, and serendipitous events I’ve encountered in the last few years. In doing so, I hope the lessons learnt will be useful! This initial post is about running and music – specifically the challenge of marathon running and the Everest of Beethoven’s 9 Symphonies. I hope it will be useful to any musician/athletes who come across it.
Last Sunday, my son Sebastian and I ran the Manchester Marathon – and what a great experience it was!
Manchester welcomed everyone – supporting us through 26.2 miles in the gruelling heat of the hottest day of the year. Along the route, we were cooled by residents’ garden hoses and children’s water pistols. We were offered sweets, watermelon, and high fives to keep our energy levels up – all contributing to an incredibly supportive atmosphere. It felt like a communal expression of the best of humanity.
We were running in memory of my father who passed away exactly a year ago. Dad was a charity marathon runner well into his 80’s, so raising money for the British Heart Foundation felt particularly appropriate. This was my first seriously long race in decades, so I needed a plan to finish, let alone clock up a decent time. Given the added dimension of potential heat exhaustion I’m so glad I enlisted the help of Beethoven, the Berlin Philharmonic and Simon Rattle! The plan I hatched enabled me to seamlessly integrate the pacing of both the physical and psychological elements of running a marathon…
The average time for a novice marathon runner in average conditions is around 5 hours 43 minutes, and I knew that the Berlin Philharmonic’s wonderful 2016 cycle lasted a similar length. How often do you “have the time” to listen to all 9 Beethoven Symphonies back-to-back, and thus follow the creative journey of Beethoven through 24 of his most fruitful years? With visions of beginning the marathon with the exuberant energy of Symphony No. 1, making determined progress through Eroica, digging deep for reserves of willpower in the 5th symphony and reaching the finish line to the sounds of “Ode to Joy” I mapped Beethoven’s Symphonic journey onto the Manchester Marathon route as follows:
Symphony 1: 24.41 completed by 2 mile marker
Symphony 2: 30.49 completed by 4 mile marker
Symphony 3: 49.07 completed by 8 mile marker
Symphony 4: 33.27 completed by 11 mile marker
Symphony 5: 30.30 completed by 14 mile marker
Symphony 6: 42.34 completed by 17 mile marker
Symphony 7: 39.11 completed by 20 mile marker
Symphony 8: 25.07 completed by 22 mile marker
Symphony 9: 1.07.52 completed by 26.2 mile Finish Line!
The process worked better than I dreamed possible – mapping Beethoven’s symphonic journey onto the physical journey of running a marathon meant at every moment I knew psychologically exactly where I was in the arc of the experience, I was literally on course. In a weird way it felt like having both my Dad and Beethoven running alongside supporting every step.
So, if you’re a fellow musician building up to an endurance event, I’d thoroughly recommend combining your love of music with the physical challenge of running a marathon in this way (of course, if you are new to this, check in with your doctor first to make sure that the targets you set yourself are realistic and a bit of practical advice, you need to be aware of your surroundings for safety reasons, so I recommend just one small earbud, leaving one ear free to process the sounds of your environment, or, even better, using bone conduction headphones).
I found this approach to the Manchester Marathon unified different aspects of my life and created a powerful synergy. Despite the challenging heat I can honestly say I enjoyed every step. If you decide to try this method, I sincerely hope you also have a similarly positive, life-enhancing experience. I’d love to hear your story!
If you would like to help raise money for the British Heart Foundation – here’s the link:
https://www.justgiving.com/page/david-murphy-7