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Running with music?

a matter of taste

Photo: GaudiLab / Getty Images

The Altona balcony, the view of the Hamburg harbor, the ships, the Elbe.

Especially in the morning when the sun rises, when there is hardly anyone out and you have everything to yourself, this is a very special place to run.

Every time I pass there, I'm not only touched by the sight, but also by the song that I think of: "So Far," it's called, by Ólafur Arnalds, an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist.

It's a song that builds slowly, seems mythical, perhaps even sounds wistful.

It hardly has any lyrics, but the word “run” appears once, making it a running song.

The calm of the song invites you to think, the instruments give you strength, that's all you need to run.

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The Altona balcony

Photo: Jürgen Ritter / IMAGO

I came across the song because it was played in a crime scene in 2018 (our Tatort critic Christian Buß gave the episode nine out of ten at the time, so you had to tune in).

Then I loaded the song onto my iPod nano (the thing lasts and lasts and lasts).

And when it appeared in my short playlist on the Altona balcony, I was done for.

“So Far”, the wide view of the harbor, the song became my running song, Ólafur Arnalds my running partner.

I now have all of his records and attended a concert in Berlin.

The new edition of our newsletter “SPIEGEL runs” is about music while running.

I actually make it quite simple for myself: I don't listen to any music most of the time.

I listen to my footsteps, to my breathing, to my body, which eventually tells me to go home.

I know that sounds terribly boring, but it's actually quite nice.

Just you, with your own exhaustion, where you sometimes have wonderful thoughts and ideas that feel meaningful and motivating when your pulse is 160, and then no longer make any sense at all when you get home.

»Music tends to make us train harder and longer«

When I hear something, it's often quiet, like with "So Far."

But it's also fun to listen to the techno version of Monsieur Mathieu's Children ("Vois sur ton chemin").

But probably a good 95 percent of my running kilometers are without accompanying music.

And of the barely five percent with accompanying music, 95 percent probably belong to Ólafur Arnalds.

Now the question is whether I am wasting potential for better performance and voluntarily foregoing legal doping (although my own music is usually forbidden, at least in competitions).

My colleague Lukas Brems writes in a text that music could promote performance.

As an external stimulus, the theory goes, music overrides the body's own signals such as pain or exhaustion.

“Music tends to make us train harder and longer,” Lukas quotes sports psychologist Jasmin Hutchinson from Springfield College in Massachusetts in his text.

Maybe you know this from a larger running event where bands play music at certain kilometer points or spectators have brought a music box - running is often particularly easy at these points.

The music, the atmosphere, that can be pushing.

What is heard is obviously very different.

World swimming champion Angelina Köhler trains with Taylor Swift, Haile Gebrselassie let Scatman John push her to set world records, Eminem is a classic.

Apparently it's important that the music fits your own beat.

Lukas' text also states that you should avoid music every third session in order not to lose the potential performance-enhancing effect.

Read here what you should pay attention to when listening to music while exercising. 

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Ólafur Arnalds is the man for the special sounds

Photo: Jaroslav Ozana / CTK Photo / IMAGO

Unfortunately, I neglected to ask Samuel Fitwi about his attitude to music while running.

The 28-year-old from the Vulkaneifel is currently one of the most exciting German runners - not only because he is the second fastest German marathon runner in history, but also because his journey there was special.

When the Eritrean fled to Germany in 2014, he knew nothing about his running talent.

He found a host family, received training and ran his first marathon.

Now he will represent Germany at the Summer Olympics in Paris over the magical 42.195 kilometers.

I met Fitwi in February and also got to know the host family that took Fitwi in after his escape.

The host family who helped make the Olympic marathon runner's story come true.

Read the text here. 

Is there a song that you listen to over and over again while running?

What's the story behind it?

Or follow the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, who is himself a passionate runner and once wrote: "I just keep running in my comfortable, homemade emptiness, my wistful silence." Although I listen to music every now and then, I discover myself the quote again.

And you?

Write to me. 

“So Far”, outside in nature or with a special view of your home, on a continuous loop – that’s my recommendation.

And as I write this, I wonder where my iPod nano is.

Kind regards,


Jan Göbel