Freebird

We were talking about our MP3 players yesterday and one of my friends described the power music feature on hers. She can cue up a particular song while she’s working out, one that gives her energy or incentive or motivation. She mentioned that she hadn’t yet picked a song for that category.

I have a cheapie discount MP3 with no such special feature but if I did have a power music button, I know exactly what my song would be: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s southern fried power ballad “Freebird.” Between the rhythm (which lets me run my standard training pace of a 10-minute mile) and the lyrics, it’s perfect. The added bonus is the ripping guitar solo, which makes me increase my pace to an all-out sprint for exactly the length of time I am able. The solo (actually a guitar “duel” between band members Gary Rossington and Allen Collins) runs four and a quarter minutes long. I like "Freebird" for my finish line music because of that epic duel.

Here’s the cosmic part. It turns out I don’t actually need a power music feature on my MP3. My song just mystically shows up whenever I need it. For instance, last October I ran a half-marathon on a steamy Saturday morning here in Corpus Christi. We started in the dark, ran over the Harbor Bridge, out to a bird sanctuary and back. As I ran I watched the sunrise over the marshes and the cattle egrets feasting on fish. A little past the 12th mile, as I summitted the Harbor Bridge for the second time, "Freebird" came up on my MP3. I kept pace to the rhythm as I jogged down the other side, and at the bottom the duel began. I sprinted hard to the finish, all 4.25 minutes, and when all was said and done I had shaved eight minutes off my previous half-marathon time.

The next race I competed in was five months later, a 5K on March 1. I was running faster than usual because it was a short race, but during the last third I started to fatigue. Everything was hurting from my knees to my lower back to my shoulders, which were starting to slump. As I fell behind some younger runners with whom I’d been keeping pace, here came "Freebird." My shoulders lifted as if by some force beyond my own sheer will. My knees and low back warmed as if they’d just been massaged. Allen and Gary started jamming and I streaked past the entire gaggle behind which I’d been lagging. I finished in 26:44, an 8:52 mile, a personal record for me that earned me 2nd place in my age group and a shiny medal.

And just this Monday morning I was running … late for work, tense and exhausted and distracted, almost certain it was going to be "one of those days." I kept pushing buttons on my car radio, more irritated than usual by the silly chitchat of deejays and the endless barrage of commercials. I landed on the classic rock station just as "Freebird" began. The fog around my brain cleared and my shoulders loosened. I pulled into the parking lot in time for the guitars. I parked and sat there rocking out. With all the parents walking their children past my Nissan, I thought it best if I refrained from banging my head like a groupie. (It took all the restraint I had in me.) The solo ended just as the first bell rang. I got out of my car and walked to my room with a big ole rock star grin on my face.

And I knew it was going to be a fantastic day. Apparently I’ve had my own personal power feature all along. Don’t we all? I challenge you to tap into yours the next time you need a boost.

(By the way, my divorce was final on March 27.)

Freebird by Lynyrd Skynyrd

If I leave here tomorrow

Would you still remember me?

For I must be traveling on, now,

'Cause there's too many places I've got to see.

But, if I stayed here with you [boy],

Things just couldn't be the same.

'Cause I'm as free as a bird now,

And this bird you cannot change.
Lord knows, I can't change.

Bye-bye, it’s been a sweet love.

Though this feeling I can't change.

But please don't take it badly,

'Cause Lord knows I'm to blame.

But, if I stayed here with you [boy],

Things just couldn't be the same.

’Cause I'm as free as a bird now,

And this bird you'll never change.

And this bird you cannot change.

Lord knows, I can't change.

Lord help me, I can't change.