Keira D’Amato’s Official Boston Marathon Training Playlist

Whether you’re running outside or just best running songs, Listen on Amazon Music blown goal. That’s why we’re putting together 90-minute playlists each month chock-full of songs with enough of a beat to keep you moving. For even more tunes, check out our list of the building back after an injury last year. “Coming back from an.

Perhaps you know Keira D’Amato as a professional runner. She has, after all, held the American record for both the marathon and the half at various points in her career. Perhaps you know her comeback story, returning to professional running in 2016 after a seven-year-long hiatus. But only the real ones know her as DJ K Rock, the D.C. metro area party emcee. Yes, prior to becoming one of America’s best living distance runners, Keira D’Amato was a DJ for over a decade, and thankfully she’s come out of retirement to create this month’s Runner’s World playlist.

“I think I was 18 when I started this business,” D’Amato remembers back to her former career. “I had a little sister who was 13 that was throwing her first boy/girl dance party. She wanted my parents out of the house, and my mom said, ‘Okay if Keira’s there chaperoning, we don’t have to be there.’ My sister told all her friends that I was the DJ. I had a bunch of CDs, and I had it all lined up so people would come request songs, and then from that party, a lot of her friends’ moms started calling me saying, ‘Can you DJ my daughter’s party?’”

That happy accident snowballed into quite the lucrative business. “I got into the elementary school market,” D’Amato continues. “So then all the elementary schools were calling me for their dances and their Halloween parties, school picnics. Then that got me into weddings. I became a race DJ, so then races started hiring me to come and be the pump up person before the races. I started when I was 18, and I probably did it into my 30s. I never really marketed it. I just kept saying yes, not believing that I was getting paid to come to parties and pick the music.”

When D’Amato moved away from the D.C. area to Florida, her DJing side hustle naturally came to an end, but she still remembers the period fondly. “It’s funny because on runs, my teammates will say something and I’ll be like, ‘Oh that reminds me of this one time when I was DJing,’ and they’re all like ‘Hold on. What?’ I was never the cool DJ out in the clubs. That wasn’t me, but if you get a good DJ at an event, it really makes the whole thing so much more fun.”

Nowadays, DJ K Rock’s skills are mostly used in making training playlists. D’Amato is currently a few weeks out from the Boston Marathon, building back after an injury last year. “Coming back from an injury, every week you’re like, ‘Wow I just ran the best workout of this year,’” she says. “So you’re just seeing that progress week to week, which is really motivating. You feel a bit unstoppable.”

This is D’Amato’s second time running Boston, after a 2018 race back before she was even a professional runner. Then she had to email the race organizers to ask to start with the elite women. Now she’s one of the fastest Americans in the lineup.

While D’Amato doesn’t use music on long runs or hard workouts, “because on those days I want to simulate what I’ll be doing in the race and get my body used to the quiet,” she does listen to music during recovery runs and cross-training.

“Each one of my marathon builds, I start a new playlist,” she says. “I’ll add songs, so its an ever-growing list. I’ll be listening to that marathon morning. That puts me in such a good headspace because it’s the same music I’ve been listening to all build. It reinforces how much work I’ve done. It puts me in a really chill, calm headspace that makes a race more like a workout which I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of times.”

So what will D’Amato be listening to on Patriots’ Day morning? Kacey Musgraves, Gracie Abrams, Shaboozey, Frances and the Lights, Ellie Goulding, and Jonas Blue just to name a few of the acts on her playlist for this marathon build. “Oh you know the song from Schitt’s Creek when Patrick serenades David? ‘Simply the best.’ Patrick’s version is on my playlist right now too.”

Thankfully, America’s fastest DJ has come out of retirement for one playlist only. She’s packed it with some of her favorites (and yes “Simply the Best”) so whether you’re running Boston or just running around your neighborhood, here’s a professionally curated playlist for your run.

Matthew Huff

Matthew Huff is a freelance writer and runner, and he is the author of MARATHONER: What to Expect When Training for and Running a Marathon, published by Rizzoli Publications. His writing has appeared in Runner's World and BuzzFeed among others, and he is the co-host of “P.S. You're Wrong: A Pop Culture Podcast.” Originally from Michigan, he now lives and runs in New York City, where he is pursuing a career as an expert chicken tender taster.