Christy Turlington Burns Plans NY Marathon Run

New York, Nov 3: Christy Turlington Burns is putting all the time she spends in motion juggling her different hats to good use: She's planning to run in Sunday's New York City Marathon to raise awareness for her maternal health charity.

In preparation for the big 26-mile(41.84-kilometer) day, Turlington Burns says she's found that no-frills exercise works in her busy days as wife and mother, model, businesswoman, master's degree student, documentary filmmaker and philanthropist. She says it's one of the few things that can be done anytime and anyplace, and she's thinking so hard about her cardio breathing that it's actually sort of relaxing.

"I think it just might be part of my routine now. It's part of my life, and I can't imagine not getting up and doing it."

Of course, modeling was her primary gig for many years with turns on every marquee runway and on the cover of every major magazine. At age 42, she still gets in front of the camera on a regular basis, so working out is, essentially, part of her job, and Turlington Burns has been an enthusiastic yoga practitioner for 25 years. She's been an on-again, off-again jogger, too, bringing her sneakers to London and Paris when she'd go for photo shoots, but she says she didn't fully appreciate the local color you can soak in from the sidewalk.

"I'm thinking I could rediscover all the cities I visit on my feet," she says during a telephone interview.

She took it up again in earnest this summer when the New York Road Runners club offered her charitable organization, Every Mother Counts, 10 spots in the marathon.

So, starting with three miles (4.8 kilometers) and hitting 12 or 13 miles (19 to 21 kilometers) after six weeks, the wife of actor-director Edward Burns and mother to daughter Grace and son Finn, was off and running. She stopped long enough to answer some questions for The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

--AP: Have you settled into a training routine?

Turlington Burns: "I prefer the morning -- I have less energy at the end of the day. It's easier to blow off doing it once my kids come in the door. ... I've experimented with the clothes. In the beginning, it was all cotton T-shirts. That was all I had. But now I have the wickable shirts. And I'm always cold, so I had to figure out how to layer, and I'm still trying to figure out how many layers I can get away with. And I know I have to eat before I run, so I've been eating a banana with almond butter. It's filling enough, it's protein, it's good fuel."

--AP: Have you seen the paparazzi photos of you on your morning jog?

Turlington Burns: "There have been a couple of photographers on my training run. I don't usually attract them, but they're in my neighborhood. I usually just kind of look at my feet. It's more embarrassing than anything else. ... But I won't be thinking about them, I don't think, at the end of 26.2 miles."

--AP: How does the marathon fit with Every Mother Counts' message about access to health care for expectant and new mothers and their children?

Turlington Burns: "In maternal health, distance makes a huge difference, and this is a perfect way to explain that. Five K is the minimum distance a woman has to walk to get to a clinic in many places, and in many places that could be 35K. You'd be surprised that it could be this way in the U.S., but a lot of hospitals have closed. ... Whenever I travel, I note whether there's a paved road or not, if there's emergency transportation or not. Sometimes it's a bicycle with a flatbed on the back."

--AP: Do you use social media?

Turlington Burns: "Social media and Twitter have been really helpful to get our message out. I follow everyone I can in the maternal-health world, and I can see articles I wouldn't normally get to see, but I'm not a tweeter by nature but I was asked to start -- or convinced -- to start right before my film ("No Woman, No Cry," about at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world) came out last year. It took me six months to do and I said I'd only tweet about my issue, but now with my run, I tweet about that, and yoga, too. It's all wellness and health oriented. I don't talk about my favorite latte."

Burns is putting all the time she spends in motion juggling her different hats to good use: She's planning to run in Sunday's New York City Marathon to raise awareness for her maternal health charity.

In preparation for the big 26-mile(41.84-kilometer) day, Turlington Burns says she's found that no-frills exercise works in her busy days as wife and mother, model, businesswoman, master's degree student, documentary filmmaker and philanthropist. She says it's one of the few things that can be done anytime and anyplace, and she's thinking so hard about her cardio breathing that it's actually sort of relaxing.

"I think it just might be part of my routine now. It's part of my life, and I can't imagine not getting up and doing it."

Of course, modeling was her primary gig for many years with turns on every marquee runway and on the cover of every major magazine. At age 42, she still gets in front of the camera on a regular basis, so working out is, essentially, part of her job, and Turlington Burns has been an enthusiastic yoga practitioner for 25 years. She's been an on-again, off-again jogger, too, bringing her sneakers to London and Paris when she'd go for photo shoots, but she says she didn't fully appreciate the local color you can soak in from the sidewalk.

"I'm thinking I could rediscover all the cities I visit on my feet," she says during a telephone interview.

She took it up again in earnest this summer when the New York Road Runners club offered her charitable organization, Every Mother Counts, 10 spots in the marathon.

So, starting with three miles (4.8 kilometers) and hitting 12 or 13 miles (19 to 21 kilometers) after six weeks, the wife of actor-director Edward Burns and mother to daughter Grace and son Finn, was off and running. She stopped long enough to answer some questions for The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

--AP: Have you settled into a training routine?

Turlington Burns: "I prefer the morning -- I have less energy at the end of the day. It's easier to blow off doing it once my kids come in the door. ... I've experimented with the clothes. In the beginning, it was all cotton T-shirts. That was all I had. But now I have the wickable shirts. And I'm always cold, so I had to figure out how to layer, and I'm still trying to figure out how many layers I can get away with. And I know I have to eat before I run, so I've been eating a banana with almond butter. It's filling enough, it's protein, it's good fuel."

--AP: Have you seen the paparazzi photos of you on your morning jog?

Turlington Burns: "There have been a couple of photographers on my training run. I don't usually attract them, but they're in my neighborhood. I usually just kind of look at my feet. It's more embarrassing than anything else. ... But I won't be thinking about them, I don't think, at the end of 26.2 miles."

--AP: How does the marathon fit with Every Mother Counts' message about access to health care for expectant and new mothers and their children?

Turlington Burns: "In maternal health, distance makes a huge difference, and this is a perfect way to explain that. Five K is the minimum distance a woman has to walk to get to a clinic in many places, and in many places that could be 35K. You'd be surprised that it could be this way in the U.S., but a lot of hospitals have closed. ... Whenever I travel, I note whether there's a paved road or not, if there's emergency transportation or not. Sometimes it's a bicycle with a flatbed on the back."

--AP: Do you use social media?

Turlington Burns: "Social media and Twitter have been really helpful to get our message out. I follow everyone I can in the maternal-health world, and I can see articles I wouldn't normally get to see, but I'm not a tweeter by nature but I was asked to start -- or convinced -- to start right before my film ("No Woman, No Cry," about at-risk pregnant women in four parts of the world) came out last year. It took me six months to do and I said I'd only tweet about my issue, but now with my run, I tweet about that, and yoga, too. It's all wellness and health oriented. I don't talk about my favorite latte."

--AP: How closely do you follow fashion now?

Turlington Burns: "Very, very little -- only because it's time-consuming. I haven't worked full time as a model since `95. The stuff I do takes about 15-20 days a year, and those jobs are when I catch up with what everyone is doing. After so many years, the novelty has worn off. I can appreciate it, but I don't covet any fashion items at all."