I use this app to listen to music while I run all the time and its great.

The app is called Cadence, it matches the music from your itunes library to the speed you are running at, helps motivate me and keep my pace.

http://www.cadenceapp.com

Personally, I always prefered to run with friends and to maintain a conversation during runs, but when I run alone, I almost always do it with music.

I guess it’s a good thing I’m FAR from an elite runner!

For the elite, the iPod could contain information, pacing and, perhaps, even real-time communication with a coach, and I can support its ban. For the non-elite, however, I do not understand the logic that says an iPod is disallowed because it impairs a runner, while deaf runners, blind runners – who would have the same exact impairments – are not prevented from running (blind runners typically do have guides, but not always – the elite runner Marla Runyon ran both track and road races without a guide at times.)

This ban, of course, is in place due to fear of lawsuits that come after a runner using an iPod is injured in one of the ways that the USATF and the organizers (and their insurers) fear. But all runners sign a legal waiver when they enter a race. Add the stuff that the race organizers will not be responsible for injuries caused by the use of electronic devices that could impair a runner to the waiver, that’s what I say.

I do run in races that ban iPods, etc. and do not use them in these races. (Well, I actually use the Nike+ stuff without headphones – i.e., just to capture the running data for the race, not to listen to music, with the iPod in a pocket and nothing in my ears.) As a matter of fact, I’m finding that listening to anything during a race is hard to do without cranking the volume, so I just do not bother in the races I’ve run in the last 18 months, even when they are not prohibited. But I think that if somebody needs to listen to whatever it is that motivates them to finish, it’s not harming anybody to let them use the devices.

By the way, to me, it is the responsibility of the passing runner to find a path, not the runner being passed to allow somebody through. That’s not a valid reason to ban them, in my opinion. (Yes, I have been occasionally frustrated by being boxed in at the start of events. But so it goes – that’s part of the race.)

So, again, I agree with a ban on championship competitors – put on an electronic device of any sort and you are automatically in the pack – but not for the pack.