k Running Zero Halve Rits Sweatshirt—just look at who is set to run next month’s New York City Marathon—and while many of them have similar reasons to lace up as the average person, what motivates them to finish a run can vary. For one of the biggest rappers in the world, this inspiration comes from a higher source.
In an interview conducted by his friend and fellow musician, SZA, in Harper’s Bazaar, multi-Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar discussed his love of running and what pushes him forward toward that last mile … and then some.
“Ain’t no bullshit. Ain’t no cliché. But I literally talk to God,” he said. “Like, it’s to a point where I’ll be starting to think I’m going crazy. But then He has to remind me, ‘No, this is really me.’”
Lamar says that his spirituality extends to one of his favorite daily rituals: running. “My early-morning practice is that I have to run. When I started running, that’s where I started to understand,” he told SZA. “There was this threshold of pain in the spirituality for me. I remember my shins was aching, and I was like, I got one mile to go. Then I get whispers and downloads and start talking about shit that I want to know about. And next DEV I’m three miles in, four miles in. I wake up and do that shit every day.”
zapatillas de running trail ultra trail talla 47 verdes posted a video of one of his workouts to his secret-ish Instagram account, proving that his self-imposed nickname “Big Protein” (“pointed-toe boots Nero, Y’all gotta stop playin’, bro.”) is very much valid.
Of course, Lamar isn’t the only musician with a running routine. When prepping for the start of her massive Eras Tour last year, Taylor Swift divulged that part of her training consisted of Nike Air Max 98 Martin Herren Sportschuhe Sneaker EUR 46 Nr for the show while running on the treadmill, switching up the tempo of the run depending on the song.
“Fast for fast songs, and a jog or a fast walk for slow songs,” Swift said in an interview with Time. With the massive tour finally coming to a close at the end of this year, she may or may not need a prayer of her own to make it across the finish line.
Laura Ratliff is a New York City-based writer, editor, and runner. Laura's writing expertise spans numerous topics, ranging from travel and food and drink to reported pieces covering political and human rights issues. She has previously worked at Architectural Digest, Bloomberg News, and Sneakers ohne Schnürung Weiß zapatillas de running Columbia talla 38.5 entre 60 y 100 TripSavvy. Like many of us, Laura was bitten by the running bug later in life, after years of claiming to "hate running." Her favorite marathon is Big Sur.
