Model Christy Turlington Burns on running the 2016 Boston marathon
Model Christy Turlington Burns is getting ready to run in the upcoming Boston Marathon. We chatted with the Calvin Klein and Maybelline model about her training and race plan.
Christy Turlington Burns is a mother, social entrepreneur, model and founder of the maternal health organization, Every Mother Counts. She is also a runner.
In 2011, the face that has graced so many magazines lined up for the New York City marathon to race. Turlington Burns is now set to run the 2016 Boston Marathon. She qualified with a time of 3:46 at the London Marathon.
Turlington Burns has been recognized as one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People and Glamour‘s Woman of the Year. Aside from running, founding Every Mother Counts and her modelling career, she’s also a member of the Harvard Medical School Global Health Council and on the advisory Board of New York University’s Nursing School. She holds a BA from NYU and has studied public health at Columbia University.
She is also running the Boston marathon for the cause she founded.
Every Mother Counts
Having endured a childbirth complication herself, Christy was compelled to direct the documentary, No Woman, No Cry about maternal health challenges that impact the lives of millions of women around the world.
Every Mother Counts supports programs that improve access to comprehensive maternity care in Haiti, Uganda, Bangladesh, India, Tanzania, Guatemala and the United States. Since 2012, Every Mother Counts has impacted over 400,000 lives by linking women to proper care during and after pregnancy and childbirth.
We had the chance to ask her about her running and her work.
NP: Why did you decide to run the Boston marathon?
CTB: In my mind, Boston always felt out of my league. Every Mother Counts had a small team presence there in 2013 and I followed our runners right up to the moment the race was stopped after the bombing and chaos that ensued. Some of those runners returned the following year, so we have had a couple of runners representing EMC the last few years.
Last winter, I started training for the London marathon and just before heading over, the thought of qualifying for Boston did cross my mind. As soon as I finished and shared my time (3:46 – PR for me), I heard from people that I had qualified for Boston and that’s when I decided I would run it this year.
A photo posted by Christy Turlington Burns (@cturlington) on
NP: You ran your first marathon in New York in 2011. What has your running been like since then?
CTB: I have run a marathon each year since that first one in NYC in 2011. I have now done NYC, Chicago and London. I also trained for NYC in 2012 when it was cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy. I did not seriously consider myself a runner until after my second marathon, but I do now. I run all year round and sign up for half-marathons in between the full marathons to keep me motivated. Last year, we participated in the Kilimanjaro Half and Full Marathon in Tanzania and I just returned from Haiti where we ran a 20K in Jacmel. Every Mother Counts supports programs that improve access to essential maternity care in both of those countries.
NP: How do you fit training into a busy schedule?
CTB: It certainly helps that Every Mother Counts is also my job so I can incorporate training into my workday. I travel a lot so planning my long runs around that and other commitments can be a challenge, but I incorporate training into my schedule just as I would a meeting.
NP: What is the attraction do running? What do you enjoy about it?
CTB: I ran as a child in other sports and periodically as an adult for exercise, which I didn’t enjoy as much. I have rediscovered the joy in running and the solitude and peace of mind it gives me. Running is a spiritual practice for me that integrates mind, body and soul.
NP: What is the link between running and Every Mother Counts?
CTB: In 2011, a year after Every Mother Counts launched, we were offered a handful of spots in the NYC Marathon. I knew in that moment this was a challenge I wanted to take on. As I was training, I realized that running has a lot of similarities to the experience of pregnancy and labor both physically and mentally. It has also been a powerful way to educate the public about one of the biggest barriers girls and women face when bringing life into the world: distance. Many women live miles away from healthcare providers and facilities, with extremely limited access to transportation. Poor road conditions and nonexistent or unreliable public transportation make travel difficult and unsafe. Emergency care may be 40 kilometres or more away and ambulances are rare. Women often have to make that trek by foot, while in labor. All of the funds raised from our runners are invested into programs that help break down these barriers and bring women closer to the basic maternal healthcare they need to survive.
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A four-time marathon finisher, Christy resides in New York City where she lives with her husband, filmmaker Edward Burns, and their two children.
You can support Christy Turlington Burn’s efforts here. You can follow Turlington Burns and her cause at @everymomcounts. You can follow Noel Paine on Twitter at @NoelPaine or on his personal blog.
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