Running and music are two of my passions. But they are two passions that don’t mix too well for me. Guess I’m just one of those dinosaurs who simply will not or can not run with music. (I mean, I have a few times on a treadmill but that’s about it.)

There’s certainly nothing inherently wrong about running with an Ipod (I don’t even own one), but I’d rather tune into the voices and noises around me than some vintage Santana on a training run.

Races are different in one respect. Some blaring rock ‘n’ roll (courtesy of Evil) at the starting line is a must. Warming up to some great hard rock gets my motor revved. And when the gun goes off, I love blasting off the line to ear-splitting rock.

A few years ago, I compiled a list for Runner’s World of the best running songs of all-time. There were such predictable conventional running songs as Running on Empty, Born to Run, Jump, Soul Sacrifice and Gonna Fly Now were some of the nominees.

But the winning song was Running Down a Dream by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers which is a high energy blast, just the perfect tune to start just about any race. (Evil uses it a lot.)

Anyway, someone actually conducted a poll recently of 3000 runners to pick the best running songs. Here’s what they picked:

1. Survivor: Eye of the Tiger (Rocky 111)
2 Queen: Don't Stop Me Now
3 Spencer Davis Group: Keep on Running
4 Vangelis: Chariots of Fire
5 Kanye West: Stronger
6 Bill Conti: Gonna Fly Now (original Rocky)
7 Heather Small: Proud
8 Killers: Mr Brightside
9 Nickelback: Rockstar
10 Queen: We Are the Champions

***

1. Marathon Kids, the non-profit, fitness program for kids, received a huge financial boost this week with a $750,000 grant from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. The grant will be used to study the program and its impact on children as well as to support the Marathon Kids various fitness and educational programs. Started 12 years ago in Austin by Kay Morris, Marathon Kids has expanded to seven cities: Austin, Houston, Dallas, the Rio Grande Valley, Baltimore, Chicago and Los Angeles.
2. You have to love a company like HealthYes Preventive Screening (which does mobile health screenings). The company, which just moved to town from Cleveland, is setting up in their new digs on South Congress with Steelcase Walkstations. The Walkstations are actually workstations that combine treadmills with computers so HealthYes employees can work and walk at the same time. If that isn’t enough, HealthYes also provides free bikes so folks can ride to lunch or to run errands. No word if they also provide free running shoes.
3. When I got home from the BagelFest 5-K last Sunday, I checked the race results from the Deutschen Pfest 5-K in Pflugerville to see how some friends did. After the times for the first two guys—Jacob Rotich and Keith Dowland—I knew something was screwy because the times were unbelievably slow (23 minutes-plus) for such solid runners as Helen Rotich and Al Guevara. As it turns out, a rookie Pflugerville cop was stationed at the final turn and unintentionally blocked it off. Instead of taking a left back to the finish, the officer misdirected almost the entire field about a half mile off course, resulting in the slow times. Rotich and Dowland got there before the cop did and knew which way to go so their times were legit: Rotich won in 16:17 with Dowland—the 53-year-old Wonder from Down Under-- second in 17:17.
4. My buddy Tim Revell has worked tirelessly raising money to combat a strange disease I never heard of until we met three years ago. The disease is called Duchenne’s and it’s a rare type of muscular dystrophy that effects young boys, including his four-year-old son, Timothy. Sadly, it’s a fatal disease and there’s no known cure. But Tim has run the past three Austin Marathons to raise money for CureDuchenne which funds research to find a cure for this terrible affliction. Tim’s also organizing a golf tournament—the Link Up for the Cure—that will benefit CureDuchenne. The tourney is June 21st at the challenging Shadow Glen course in Manor. Entry fee for the four-golfer scramble is $110 per person and includes cart, green fees and lunch. For more info and/or to register, go to www.cureduchenne.org or call Tim at 789-5936.
5. Gilbert Tuhabonye won’t be running in the Olympics for his native Burundi, but he will be writing a bi-weekly blog on CNN.com International which will be part of CNN’s Olympic coverage. Gilbert’s first posting was about his experiences running the London Marathon last month (he DNF’ed). If you’re interested, go to http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/news/olympics. Look for the Athlete’s Blogs section halfway down on the right hand side of the page.
6. Don’t forget this Saturday night is the raffle for the guaranteed entry and trip to the ’08 New York City Marathon. The raffle is a fund-raiser/party/open house for the Twenty-Six Two marathon group. It’ll be held at the RunTex annex (422 W. Riverside) from 6-8 p.m. The raffle includes the guaranteed, paid entry into the NYC Marathon as well as two roundtrips on American Airlines. Only 200 raffle tickets are being sold at $50 apiece. The drawing will be held at 7 p.m. More info, go to www.twentysixtwo.org. 
7. Great to see Cedar Park police chief Henry Fluck, his bride Meredith Johnson and their seven-month-old baby at the BagelFest on Sunday. In a rare reversal of form, Henry actually finished a few spots ahead of the younger, faster Meredith who was running her first race since giving birth. 
8. The fastest gal in Cedar Park—the phenomenal Ashley Isham, who is finishing her sophomore year at Vista Ridge—had a great state meet as she won the 3200 meters in the 4A division. But next year Vista Ridge is moving up a division to the 5A which Ashley should still dominate. Hope her future plans include the 40 Acres as UT’s distance coach Steve Sisson could certainly use a runner of her classiness and poise. BTW: Congress Avenue Mile champ Julie Amthor has committed to UT for next year. It’s only a matter of time before Sisson begins attracting the caliber of distance runners Jason Vigilante and the men’s program does.
9. If you're into running history and want to check out some vintage videos from the 1972 Olympics, go to http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/20/the-best-of-youtube-munich-1972. I still get choked up every time I watch Dave Wottle win the 800 and Steve Prefontaine stumble and finish just out of the medals in the 5000. Oh yeah, and Frank Shorter winning the marathon. Great stuff.

Have any juice news for me? (It doesn't have to be entirely true.) If you do, email it to wish@runtex.com