Refinery29 is ridiculously excited to present our very own TCS New York City Marathon blogger: the one and only Alicia Keys. She’s a multiple Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, an actress (she’ll be a guest star on season 2 of Empire), a mom, an activist, and a proud NYC native. Follow along on Alicia’s journey to race day and get a taste of her training routine, her biggest challenges, and the amazing cause she’ll be running to support on Sunday, November 1.I'm the kind of person who doesn't admit to having fears. In fact, fear is my own personal "F-word."I feel like if I admit to having any fears, I'm accepting them in some way, or maybe even inviting fear into my life. I'm not sure if that technique is working for or against me (the jury is still out), but I know that it's my current philosophy.So am I feeling any f**rs about the marathon? Let me think… I guess a few things come to mind:1) Honestly, the thought of "What if I don't finish?" comes up. But I've done a marathon before, so I'm pretty confident I will.2) People keep telling me that if I don't keep my toenails short, my nails can come off! Yuck — I am not okay with that!3) I was training one day and felt like I had to, well, go to the bathroom. So that kind of freaked me out.4) Then, there's my ankle. I sprained it about eight weeks ago while playing soccer with the kids, so that's in the back of my mind. But so far, so good (in case you were worried).