Coaches, along with real runners, offer their best advice for breaking down this time barrier.
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I broke four hours in the Chicago Marathon in 2014. (I just made it, with a finish time of 3:58.) That was my fifth or sixth marathon and the first one that I really tried to nail the four-hour benchmark. That said, the conditions that day were *chef’s kiss* perfection—cool, sunny, and a perfectly flat course.
And that’s the X factor that we should align on up front when it comes to breaking four hours in the marathon: You can only control the controllables during a marathon—so much of running 42.2 kilometres is out of your control.
It’s also important to mention that a four-hour marathon is a doable, but relatively ambitious goal: Compared to running a two-hour half marathon, nailing a four-hour full marathon is “a little bit more tricky” because you’re obviously doubling the distance, says Greg Laraia, a running coach at Motiv in New York City. “You have to rely on nutrition, strength, your mental capacity, and a million other factors that running entails before you can say, ‘hey, I’m just going to go out and run the half marathon in two hours, and then do it again,’” he says.
But, fear not! If you’ve set your sights on breaking four hours in the marathon, keep reading for tips and tricks from running coaches and real runners who have been there, done that.
For starters, training to break four is key. So you’re going to want to make sure you have a solid training plan.
1. Analyze Your Current Half-Marathon Time
Laraia says it’s important to first assess whether a four-hour marathon is achievable because there’s nothing worse than setting yourself up for an overly challenging goal.
“The general rule of thumb is to double your half-marathon time, and then add 10 to 20 minutes depending on your capability,” says Laraia. (Elites might only need to add five to 10 minutes but less experienced runners will likely need to add the full 20.) So if you have a two-hour half marathon, you’re looking at a 4:10 to 4:20 full, most likely. That said, with some targeted training, a four-hour marathon could certainly be within your reach!
If you’ve never run a half marathon, Laraia suggests assessing your current “easy” running pace and heart rate data. If a 5:41 pace (which you’d need to average in order to achieve the four-hour marathon) puts you in zone 5 and doesn’t feel easy, you may want to reassess your marathon goal time—for now!
2. Identify Your Holes
If you’re someone who has run marathons before and you’ve come soclose to achieving 3:59:59, but haven’t quite gotten there yet, Laraia recommends assessing what you’ve done in the past and identifying any gaps or holes.
For example, besides your total weekly mileage, are you doing speed work? Strength training? Mobility? If you’ve been skipping out on any of these, now might be a good time to consider working one or more into your training plan. “If there are pieces missing, those are easy low hanging fruits where you can add those things in and you should notice a big difference,” Laraia says.
3. Consider Working With a Coach
Elana Shalomoff, who broke four hours at 3:32 in the New York City Marathon in 2023, attributes her success to hiring a coach. “If someone seriously wants to get into running, I personally recommend getting a coach because there’s so much to learn with running and making sure you’re doing it the right way to prevent injury, making it worth it to me,” she says, adding that it also helps a lot with accountability.
Laraia agrees: “As soon as you introduce the accountability factor, boom, you’re probably going to increase speed or efficiency or get a little bit more honed in on that goal.” He adds that a coach can really come in clutch for those runners who have attempted a sub-four marathon and come close, but have not yet achieved it.
4. Race a Half Marathon During Your Marathon Build-Up
Laraia has clients sign up for a half marathon within their larger marathon training cycle. “I want you to be able to run your half marathon at your marathon goal pace and be like, ‘that was easy,’” he says. “It builds confidence for you to be able to say, ‘hey, I just ran a half marathon at my goal base and it felt easy. I could turn around and do it again.’”
Dylan Schrier, 28, attributes his sub-four (3:48) 2022 Boston Marathon time to this strategy: “I gained experience by running smaller New York Road Runners races,” he says. “This helped me adjust to different distances and race environments.”
5. Vary Your Training Paces
Speed work is crucial to breaking the four-hour barrier, but you don’t want to suddenly be running fast—or even moderately fast—all of the time.
For her second marathon in New York City—during which she broke four hours for the first time (at 3:51), after running 4:03 in her first go at the distance—certified running coach and host of the Hurdle podcast Emily Abbate, 36, integrated different types of runs into her training plan. “By adding in interval and tempo work, and running my easy runs easy, I was able to really learn more about what my body was capable of,” she says.
Marie Gundersen Ishpujani, 36, broke four hours in the 2011 New York City marathon, her third 42.2 kilometre attempt. “I was in my early 20s for the first two and I really didn’t know what I was doing training and fueling-wise, thus, both races went terribly with horrible zonks at kilometres 28 to 32,” she says.
When she got into New York, she decided to go back to her high school track and field roots with some speed work—include repeat 800s and 1200s at threshold pace in addition to tempo runs and fartleks—which she says made a big difference.
Schrier notes that he found running slow to be more beneficial than running fast for every run. “It helps conserve your legs for when you need them most and is essential for staying healthy and avoiding injury,” he says.
Laraia says having one speed day per week, and then making sure your other workouts are easy, is key. “As soon as you add that variation, ideally you’ll see benefits,” he says.
6. Go Over 32 in Training
“A huge help in achieving sub-four was including a 35 kilometre run in my training plan as my longest run,” says Jaclyn Amaro, 36, who, after coming in over four hours in her first two marathons, broke four in New York City in 2013 with a time of 3:52:44. “Practicing getting past ‘the wall’ and going to 22, I think physically prepared my body with more time on my feet but also mentally prepared me,” she says.
Jimmy Anderson, 51, who has run 27 total marathons, 25 of them sub-four, typically runs four 32+ kilometre runs during his race buildup. “If you’ve done three or four marathons and you’re trying to get this sub-four-hour marathon, your body’s probably pretty strong and pretty physically able to handle the 35 and 38 kilometres,” says Anderson, who has a 3:12 marathon PR. And maybe practicing those longer distances more frequently is the “difference maker” needed to achieve your goal.
(He flags that such high mileage could be counterproductive for marathon newbies and less seasoned runners, though—if you’re unsure, talk to a running coach.)
7. Listen to Your Body
The biggest thing, Laraia says, is listening to your body during training. “That’s a huge piece in a marathon cycle where if you can listen to your body, it’s going to tell you what it needs,” he says.
This applies in a few different ways: For one, it could be listening to your cravings, like if you suddenly feel like a steak or a burger, maybe your body needs iron—and you should honor that, he says. Or, it could mean being attuned to tight muscles that need some extra TLC, like a tight calf muscle that’s begging to be rolled out. Finally, it could mean actually skipping a planned workout—or scheduling a nap later in the day—if you wake up and feel overly fatigued.
Laraia says this is a skill that you can hone like any other and it just takes practice and taking the time to tune inwards.
8. Fuel Up During Your Runs
Runs over one hour in duration require supplemental carbs and electrolytes—and skimping during training or on race day is a recipe for bonking.
“I am huge on fueling,” says Shalomoff. “It’s something my coach always drilled into me: That you should take in fuel every 30 minutes, regardless if you feel like you need it or not because by the time you feel like you need it, it’s already too late,” she says.
Laraia suggests doing some research and some self-experimentation to figure out what works best for you in terms of fueling during runs. Not all packaged run fuel is created equal, so he says it’s important to actually read the label to find out how many carbs, calories, and electrolytes are included—and determine if you need anything additional on top of that.
Personally, I realized that I wasn’t getting the recommended amount of sodium via my go-to gels, so I started adding electrolyte tablets to my water. For one, it makes my water taste better so it’s just more of a treat to drink it, which functions as a mini reward during training. (I also BYO bottle with electrolytes on race day.) The combo of being better hydrated and replenishing those electrolytes makes me feel more mentally honed in and less irritable—something that’s happened to me a lot during later kilometres of races and training runs—which makes the race more enjoyable, too.
9. Make Carb Loading a Priority
“My big thing is more is better,” says Laraia, when it comes to nutrition. When his clients finish harder workouts or long runs, he tells them to drink a protein shake, an electrolyte drink, and eat a meal.
“I ran a sub-four at the Philadelphia Marathon in 2023 after a four-year racing hiatus and I think the biggest nutrition piece that helped was a true carb load for three full days before the marathon (not just pasta the night before the race),” says Amaro, who used a carb calculator on the website of Meaghann Featherstun, RD, of the Fuel for the Sole podcast. “It felt like so much food and wasn’t exactly fun to eat that many carbs, but it really made a difference for me and I didn’t hit the wall at all during that race.”
Occasionally Laraia refers his clients to a dietitian for more personalized advice. So if figuring out your macro and caloric goals is your missing piece, that’s something to consider.
10. Leave Some Boxes Unchecked
In the same vein as listening to your body, Laraia says one big mistake he personally made in his first marathon build was being overly fixated on checking off every single workout on his training plan. “Even though your body is destroyed or broken down, you don’t want to miss that day because it’s written in the box, but it’s okay to say no to that box sometimes,” he says, adding that he ended up getting hurt because of this rigid mindset.
“Have a conversation with either your coach or yourself and just be like, ‘it’s okay if I miss this run today because I need more sleep.’ That’s not an excuse for every single day,” he says. “If you miss five days in a row, maybe that training cycle isn’t for you, or maybe there’s actually an injury or something going on, but it’s okay every now and then to skip a day.”
11. Gear Up
I ran last year’s New York City Marathon in Asics MetaSpeed Sky+ shoes and will never go back to “regular” shoes on race day. Science backs up the fact that so-called “super shoes” can improve running times of even amateur runners: A 2023 study found that when the subjects—eight men and eight women with prior-year 5K PRs averaging 19:06 and 20:18, respectively, which would translate to about a 3:30 to 4:15 marathon finish time—ran in the Nike ZoomX Vaporfly Next% 2 compared to a control shoe that lacked the carbon plate and advanced foam, they had better running economy.
For Anderson, it’s about rotating a few pairs of running shoes at a time—and retiring each pair before they get too worn-in. He keeps meticulous track of the kilometres he’s run on a particular pair of shoes within his Garmin app, and then swaps them out every 482 kilometres.
Indeed, switching up your footwear like Anderson does can actually prevent injury during training by exposing your body to different cushioning properties, and therefore, different impact forces.
12. Don’t Start Out Too Fast
Another piece of gear that’s a non-negotiable for me: My Apple Watch, which helps me stay on pace in training and on race day. It can also keeps me from running too fast at the start when excitement and energy is high!
In terms of how to stay on pace, Laraia says to expect some fluctuation in your speed throughout the marathon, especially if you have hills to tackle on course. But a good goal is to strive for negative splits (or at least even splits)!
To do that, control your pace at the beginning as much as possible—that means starting out conservatively—so you have a strong finish. And remember you can afford to “make up” time in a marathon distance, which may be trickier to pull off in something like a half marathon or shorter.
13. Zero in on Recovery
“Recovery, in my opinion, is one of the biggest parts [of performance gains] because everyone wants to do the most and do it right now,” says Laraia. “You have to give yourself time for your body to heal those micro tears or microtrauma to the tissue [from running].” That’s what’s going to help you come back stronger and more efficient—not to mention, help you to sidestep injury.
“I prioritized recovery after every run, whether long or short,” says Schrier. “I made a daily routine of foam rolling, stretching, and cold plunges.” He says cold plunges in particular were effective in helping his legs recover faster and giving him the energy to run five times a week.
Eugene Pinder, 24, who broke four hours at the 2024 London Marathon with a time of 3:21 also swears by cold plunges: “Getting in a cold plunge feels like a cheat code to cure legs that feel like bricks.” Pinder also uses saunas and even contrast therapy, and generally prioritizes recovery. “I did a major life overhaul and started to prioritize training and recovery over partying as a young 20-something living in New York City,” he says.
14. Get Ahead of Injuries
“I had posterior tibial tendonitis [when the tendon breaks down and causes pain in the foot and ankle] two weeks before I was supposed to start my training block to break four hours in the marathon,” says Pinder.
Luckily, his physical therapist quickly identified the problem and made a game plan to help him stay healthy enough to train, which involved twice-per-week in-person sessions with the PT for 10 of the 18 weeks of his training period in addition to at-home exercises with resistance bands.
“The most peculiar exercise was picking up marbles with my toes and placing them in a small cup,” Pinder says. But it worked!
15. Be Patient
As the saying goes: It’s a marathon, not a sprint—and that goes for the time it takes to build up your speed and endurance enough to break four hours. “That’s the whole purpose of having a training plan, because you’re not going to see these changes overnight,” says Laraia. “It’s something you have to work on and you’ll start to notice early changes in the first four to six weeks hopefully, and then ideally at the end of the training cycle is when you really see results.”
16. Believe in Yourself
It may sound cliche, but this point is critical: Running can be tough, but confidence is key. “When things get difficult, it’s tempting to give up, but you have to remind yourself that the pain is temporary and keep pushing through,” says Schrier. “Ultimately, the biggest part of training is finding the inner drive and pushing yourself when it matters most. I thrive on the challenge and the pain, and over time, it becomes easier as you continue to push your limits.”
Believing in yourself also means letting go of some of the stress of hitting your goal and enjoying your time out there celebrating your training! “Don’t forget to have fun! If you’re running and training in a way that is enjoyable to you and your body, chances are you’ll have an easier time achieving your goals,” Ishpujani says.
