Analysis by Strava into runners in the 12 weeks before the London marathon shows, unsurprisingly, that the harder you work, the better your times

What does it take to run a sub-3 marathon?

What does it take to run a marathon in under three hours? As someone painfully close to that target, I’d love to know a definitive answer. However, in the absence of a rock solid guaranteed-method, running-tech firm Strava has provided some interesting data about the training habits of runners.

Looking at runs by 4,000 London marathoners last year in the 12 weeks leading up to last year’s race, it found some interesting trends. The bands analysed are pretty broad – there is a huge difference between a 3hrs 5mins runner and a 3hrs 55mins runner – but still follow rough patterns and highlight a few important points for all marathon-runners.

Average mileage per week in that period

Sub-3 runners: 42 miles a week over seven runs

3-4 hour runners: 27 miles over four runs

4-5 hours: 18 miles over three runs

5 + hours: 14 miles over two runs

Peak weeks

Sub-3 runners: four weeks before marathon, average 52 miles.

5+hour marathon finishers, six weeks before, average 20 miles

Distance and frequency



Unsurprisingly, the faster the finisher, the more miles they put in, and the more runs they do. The average time spent running per week was:

Sub 3-hour finishers: 5hs and 22mins

3-4 hour finishers: 3hrs 51mins

4-5 hour finishers: 3hrs

5- hour plus: 2hs 30mins

The interesting thing to note is how much more effort, relatively speaking, the long run in training will be for runners in the 5-plus group than those at the “sharper” end.

This is one of the reasons many training plans will peak at something like 18 miles. Many people may consider that not very far in comparison with the 26.2 you have to do on the day, but in terms of recovery and in relation to the rest of that notional person’s weekly run, it represents a huge leap.

Long runs v short runs

Across all finishing times, the breakdown of short runs versus long runs was very similar.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Long runs v short runs. Photograph: Strava

Peaking and tapering

For the fastest runners, the taper doesn’t suddenly drop off a cliff three weeks out, after what typically is the weekend for the longest run. Mileage still remains pretty high until the last week, in fact.

Sub-3 marathoners:

4 weeks prior to race: 51 miles (peak week)

3 weeks prior: 49 miles (but more than eight runs)

2 weeks prior: 36 miles

Marathon week: 17 miles

Total distances

In the 12 weeks leading up to the event, Strava runners collectively clocked up a total distance of more than 1,265,489 miles in the course of 181,797 hours running.

More info at strava.com