The Run….

So while Elizabeth conquered the Broad Street 10 miler yesterday, I conquered the RG Riverside half a ten miler on Saturday, running five miles for the first time this year!! I had set out to run a 4.2 mile course I call the Harper Loop. I have not run that course yet this year mainly because it has a long ascent up Pancoast Avenue and then another shorter ascent up Fairview to Harper. Followed by a descent and short ascent along Harper followed by a longer descent down Cranberry Lane.  I did well keeping a slower and steady pace knowing that the hills would be a challenge. The first three miles were 10:44, 11:06, and 10:54 beat you can guess where the hills were!! I slowed down on mile four because I hadn’t really run a four miler with hills and I was tired. But when I stabilized my breathing thanks to the rhythms of Lis er Stille, I didn’t feel too bad, so I thought “let’s see if I can go five”, knowing that Lizzie was doing ten on Sunday! At least I could do a half of that!!

Boy did the mileage on the GPS on the iPhone increase slowly over that last mile!! I ended up going a lot farther than I thought I would need to go to make that last mile! My last two miles were in 11:47 and 11:39. At least the last mile was slightly faster!! My final time was 56:34. Lizzie’s split at the five-mile mark was 54:38 so I would have only been a minute and change behind her!!

When I told my wife that she said “You don’t have to beat her, you’re 63 and she is 24!” True I thought but hell I’ve been running for most of those years and she’s been running for two!, besides I’d like to be better than her at something!! Anyway, both my 5 mile run and Lizzie’s run have motivated me…. hopefully I can stay motivated!!

The Soundtrack: Empirical Ghost – Lis er Stille from Denmark

The soundtrack for the run was Empirical Ghost from Lis er Stille. Lis er Stille is a Danish prog rock band. They are cataloged in the Post Rock/Math rock sub-genre.

Lis Er Stille is a band from Denmark founded in 2004 as an art project between the painter Vindril and singer Martin Byrialsen. The idea of this project was for Martin to make Vindril’s paintings into music, but as time passed the music grew and a band was build from it….

…When looking at Lis Er Stille from the surface most of their compositions resemble that of post-rock bands as well as some alternative rock bands like Muse, Coldplay and others, but there’s also a prog rock undertone in them. Some people recall past prog rockers when hearing Lis Er Stille while most will likely see links with the modern prog and related bands. Highly recommended for fans of post-rock and the modern alternative / prog bands. Full Biography at ProgArchives.

lis er stille – press photo – by kasper hemme

The musician line-up for the album is….

Martin Byrialsen / Vocals + Keyboards
Asbjørn Helboe / Bass
Tue Schmidt Rasmussen / Guitars
Jon Gotlev / Drums

The music is distinctive and good and I kinda like the vocals. The one bad thing about the album is that is short for a progressive rock album clocking in at 52 minutes for the ten tracks. So the album is great for a four mile run but comes up short (in length only) for a slow five-mile run!! Now what may be a challenge is to complete the run before the end of the album!! To do that I would need to run the course at a 10:24 pace! A challenge for later in the year!!

Links for Further Explorations of Lis er Stille

Official Website: Bandcamp
Facebook
ProgArchives

Here’s a video for the track “Gold Future” from Empirical Ghost by Lis er Stille

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrY7w-MjFvc

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