When Alicia Keys' brother asked her if she'd be interested in running the New York Marathon with him on Nov. 1, her first instinct was "HELL. NO!"
"But then I thought, This is my city, so why not?" Keys writes in a new blog post for Refinery 29 about her marathon training. "I thought about all the times I rode a train through the boroughs or drove through the boroughs, and it occurred to me that I've never run through the five boroughs. So why not? In fact, this is my new slogan: AND WHY NOT?"
For Keys, running the marathon is just as much a mental challenge as a physical one.
"I'm all about breaking mental boundaries, and training for a marathon falls right into the Jedi mind-training I need," she writes.
Keys will also be running for a very important cause, which helps keep her motivated.
"This is what inspires me when my body begins to tire," she writes of her charity, Keep a Child Alive, that brings AIDS medication to disadvantaged children and families in Africa. "My training is nothing compared to the challenging journey these families face every day. We may not be able to walk a mile in their shoes, but we can certainly run a mile (or 26.2) for their lives and for the forward motion of all the young people who are creating a whole new Africa."
The singer shares a sneak peak of her packed schedule — training included. (Wake up at 5:30 a.m. Meditate. Wake up daughter Egypt for school. Baby wakes up. Feed the baby. Run and train. Little nap. Start day at 11:00 a.m.)
"Believe me, I never thought I'd be this person either. You know what I mean — the 'early-morning-schedule' person," she writes. "I always thought I was one of those people who was lucky if I could just get up, get dressed, and get out the door on time. But somehow, I'm into it. Getting up early to take care of myself physically and mentally sharpens my focus, my dedication, and my clarity."
Her secret for "getting her running swag on?"
Audiobooks — including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah, Sue Monk Kidd's The Invention of Wings and Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth.
"They're mentally stimulating and do an incredible job of keeping me engaged. There's always the next thing happening in the book, the next place the story takes me. I never know what's coming, and somehow it distracts me enough to get through all those miles without noticing as much."
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