March 5, 2025, 2:33 pm | Read time: 4 minutes
Pop star on stage, power runner on the road: Harry Styles (31) clocked a time well under four hours at the Tokyo Marathon 2025 — making him one of the very fast recreational runners. How did he do it?
The 4-hour mark is an essential goal for many recreational runners in a marathon because it represents a kind of symbolic threshold between “getting through” and “ambitious running.” Anyone who finishes in under four hours can consider themselves among the faster recreational runners. However, pop star Harry Styles delivered an exceptionally impressive performance at the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday.
Overview
Tokyo Marathon: Harry Styles Finishes in 3:24:07 Hours — in the Top 15 Percent
It has been clear for a while that 31-year-old former One Direction star Harry Styles has developed a passion for running in his spare time. In 2024, Coach magazine reported that he regularly runs over 18 kilometers with his trainer. Now, the singer has completed a marathon in under three and a half hours. Of course, you can’t do that without hard training — and a clever race strategy.
Harry Styles ran the marathon in the Japanese capital on March 2 — and crossed the finish line like 36,658 other runners (27,576 men and 9082 women).1 The singer left the vast majority of them behind, completing the 42.195 kilometers in a time of 3:24:07 hours. Placing 6010th out of nearly 37,000, Styles was among the top 15 percent of runners in Tokyo.
Average Pace of 4:50 Minutes per Kilometer
If you break down his time, he needed an average of 4:50 minutes per kilometer. It’s no big deal if you’re reasonably fit, having a good day, and lacing up your running shoes for a 5- or 10-kilometer run. However, maintaining this ambitious pace over 40 kilometers is a whole different ball game. Every amateur runner knows that.
Harry Styles Runs Tokyo Marathon with a Professional Strategy
Two more figures are fascinating: Styles passed the half marathon mark in 1:42:03 hours and needed 1:42:04 hours for the second half, which means he ran two perfectly even halves! This strategy is recommended by professionals and coaches — but is difficult to implement in practice. Anyone who has ever taken part in a road race knows this. You typically feel fresh and relaxed at the start, but then you go too fast, which leads to a slump at the end. The energy is simply squandered. It’s a classic mistake!
The finish time and his stable two halves of the race show that Styles must not only have worked hard on his speed. He has most likely also trained extensively on long training runs with final acceleration — for example, the last five to ten kilometers at marathon pace or faster. This helps to run the second half of a race strongly. This helps to finish the second half of a race strong without breaking down.
Fitness Editor Tested Harry Styles’ Running Training
Speed and muscle endurance — what do we know about Styles’ preparation in this respect? Fitness editor Harry Bullmore, who tried out Styles’ trainer Thibo David’s training for the 2024 Coach article, got a taste of just how tough the workout was.
The ex-commando soldier’s training instructions certainly don’t sound like twiddling your thumbs: “You start with a slow ten to 30-minute run, followed by a fast 1.6-kilometer run and a bodyweight challenge with 100 push-ups, 100 sit-ups, and 100 air squats — all within eight minutes.” Once that’s done, writes Bullmore, “David considers the warm-up complete.” What followed was a “mixture of circuit training, more running and core training”. The whole package “both intimidated and intrigued” him.
Incidentally, Harry Styles himself has not yet spoken publicly about his running training. There’s likely no time for it with such an intense training schedule.
FITBOOK author “Thanks to training with an AI app, I ran a half marathon in under 2 hours”
Currently to be seen on "7 vs. Wild" Joey Kelly on extreme sports and survival: “Giving up is not an option”
Long-distance runner highlights It’s better to run outside, even in winter – Jan Fitschen
Did His Shoes Make Him So Fast?
Hard training – and what else? In addition to the ideal running weather (14 degrees Celsius at the start,2 from which Harry Styles may also have benefited in Tokyo, we could also take a look at his shoes. The singer wore the “Nike Alphafly 3”. This carbon shoe, specially developed for marathon runners, is designed, in simple terms, to slightly enhance speed. Did the shoe make Harry Styles so fast? A clear no. “In principle, these shoes are designed for speeds well under 4 minutes per kilometer,” explained top German marathon runner Hendrik Pfeiffer to FITBOOK. Pfeiffer, incidentally, came 37th in Tokyo with a time of 2:12:27 hours. Incidentally, the men’s winner in Tokyo 2025 was the Ethiopian Tadese Takele with a time of 2:03:23. Sutume Kebede, also from Ethiopia, defended her title in the women’s race in 2:16:31.3