my iPod is too emo.

I love running with my new iPod nano and its armband, seeing as how my old nano went the way of getting caught in a treadmill and being bent to smithereens because I had no armband and my hand caught it while I was running and flipped it off the little treadmill tray right into the jaws of the machine. However, the armband is also kind of a curse. It's really awkward to have to reach across my chest while I'm running to change it to the next song. Especially if song after song isn't a good one to run to because it's slow and dreary. Thus I came to this conclusion: my iPod is too emo.

I was 2 miles into my run tonight before I finally came to a song that was upbeat enough to actually make me want to run a bit quicker or feel a bit more pumped up. Up until then I either just listened to the song that came on because I was sick of reaching across and changing it, or I reached across time after time and came to lame song after lame, sad, emo song hoping that the next one will be something fun.

I made a running playlist over the summer that had only songs that were upbeat and fast paced. But... I got bored of those songs because, well, they were the ones I listened to every time I ran. In the same order.

I've got a new idea. I think I am going to actually clear out my iPod and leave only good running songs on there. Then, I'm going to actually use my iTunes gift cards and buy some great music and continue to buy great music up until the half marathon. By then I should have enough songs to listen to on shuffle that I won't get too bored and can trust that each song that comes up will be decent and not sad and mopey.

I need suggestions.