All Imagine Dragons Songs are Really About Running

I’m going to see Imagine Dragons in concert tonight!  Greg got me tickets for Mother’s Day, and I’m beyond excited.  They are one of my all time favorite bands, and I have fond memories of listening to many of their songs on specific runs.  I listened to “Demons” running back to our hotel from Hell, Grand Cayman last year.  “Time to Begin” is my favorite song to listen to before the starting line of any race.  I first heard “I Bet My Life” in spin class when we lifted and sprinted for the chorus, and still associate positive energy and adrenaline with the start of the chorus each time I hear the song.

I love Imagine Dragons.  When I hear their music, I feel. “Radioactive” makes me want to stand alone in a cave with my eyes closed and experience nothing but the sound.  “Time to Begin” makes me want a stretch of open road in front of me, so I can push myself forward, over-emotional and teary eyed, thinking about how far I’ve come (from 0 to 13.1) but how I haven’t, in fact, changed – it was within me all along.

I posted once before about song lyrics that have become my running mantras – http://www.iamrunningthis.com/song-lyrics-or-running-mantras/.

Greg joked after reading it that when you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail.  He has a point, because I’m convinced that all Imagine Dragons songs are actually about running.  (All of them.)  Here are some of my favorite lyrics that I like to reframe and channel into my running.

Imagine Dragons, here I come!

The path to heaven runs through miles of clouded hell
Right to the top
Don’t look back

I’ve been around the world and never in my wildest dreams
Would I come running home to you
I’ve told a million lies but now I tell a single truth
There’s you in everything I do

I’m waking up, I feel it in my bones
Enough to make my system blow

So you gotta fire up, you gotta let go
You’ll never be loved till you’ve made your own
You gotta face up, you gotta get yours
You never know the top till you get too low

I coulda gave up then but
Then again I couldn’t have ’cause
I’ve traveled all this way for something
I take it in but don’t look down
‘Cause I’m on top of the world, ‘ay
I’m on top of the world, ‘ay
Waiting on this for a while now
Paying my dues to the dirt