Rhythm of the road: running celebrity Luke Doucet

You’d expect that Canadian indie musician Luke Doucet would log serious mileage on a cross-continent tour. But how about 100K per week on his legs?It’s all part of staying happy, says the five-time marathoner.

Luke Doucet has an insatiable appetite to achieve. Whether  it’s honing his guitar chops or improving his last running times,  the songwriter is driven by a passion for perfection. Currently  in the midst of a North American tour with Whitehorse (the  duo he plays in with wife Melissa McClelland), the musician is a  relatively new runner. He started running three and a half years  ago. At the end of his first week of running every day, he ran a  half-marathon. Since then he’s completed five marathons and  three half-marathons. In April, he was scheduled to compete in  the Boston Marathon for the first time.

When the songwriter and I connected, he and McClelland had  just crossed into the U.S., driving to Minneapolis, Minn., where  Whitehorse was playing a gig the next night. Running is therapeutic,  Doucet says. “It’s the most enjoyable part of my day,” he  says. “Melissa will tell you that I never come home from a run in a  worse mood than when I left. I’m always a nicer person – a happier  person. It sounds like something that would be hard to squeeze in  when you are on tour, but it’s actually become an essential part of  my mental health.”

How does the musician squeeze in these training sessions,  logging between 90k and 100k per week, with long runs up to  33k? “I get a lot of help,” Doucet says. “We arrive in a new city in  time to load in. In the hour it takes for the road crew to load the  gear into the venue and set up before sound check, I can go for a  good run.”

Doucet admits this rush to squeeze in a run is a blessing in  disguise. “I’m usually conscious of the fact that I have to be back    for sound check in 45 minutes,” he adds.  “As a result, I tend to run fast because I’m trying to keep up with my schedule.

While Doucet does not listen to music during a run, it does inspire his writing.  “I run quiet, but as a result, I write a lot of  music when I’m running because it’s a very  rhythmic thing. You’re breathing in time  with the pace of your feet, so, in effect,  your whole body is dancing,” he says. “I  find running is a very musical experience.”

Songs such as “Devil’s Got a Gun,” from  the latest Whitehorse record, The Fate  of the World Depends on This Kiss, was  a product of running. “I had the guitar  hook in my head for literally years before  Melissa and I actually sat down and put  words and chords together,” he reveals.  “Our last record, Emerald Isle, which is  about running to some degree, was also  written during one of my runs.”

Last fall, in between Whitehorse  gigs, Doucet ran both the Philadelphia  Marathon and the Atlantic City Half-  Marathon. In Atlantic City, he surprised  himself with a personal best of 1:21,  good for second place in the 30–39 category.  “At about the eight-mile mark, my  Nike+ watch started showing consistent  declines in my average pace,” he  recalls. “I freaked out because I felt like  I was really pushing. So I pushed harder  until about Mile 11 when I realized my  watch had lost the satellite. Then I really  panicked because all of a sudden I was  running blind. I had no idea what kind  of time I was running, so I pushed even  harder. I had no idea I was anywhere  near the front until they announced  the winners.”

Doucet closes our conversation by  crediting running coach Tania Jones who  helped him train for several marathons  in the past two years. “I suffer from a  couple of problems. As a new runner and  someone who approaches things ambitiously,  I run the risk of injuring myself  by being cocky,” he concludes. “Having  somebody like Tania in my corner has been  really wonderful.”

– David McPherson

Follow Luke Doucet on Twitter @wearewhitehorse. “I pass through a lot of different cities when I run and tend to run alone,” he says. “But if there is anybody out there who wants to reach out to me via social media and set up some runs, I’m always game to run with local runners.”