There are celebrities who “run.” They jog a couple of miles for their mental health, post a sweaty selfie, and call it fitness. Harry Styles is not one of those people.
Last September, Styles crossed the finish line at the Berlin Marathon in 2:59:13. That is a sub-three-hour marathon. For context: only about 5% of all marathon finishers ever break three hours. Most recreational runners spend years targeting that number, training cycles stacked on training cycles, and still miss it. Styles, a pop star with a tour schedule and approximately a thousand other things going on, did it in his second-ever marathon.
So when he was photographed running across the Williamsburg Bridge in Manhattan on Tuesday morning, it was worth paying attention.
The Kit
Styles was wearing a white George Clinton/Parliament long-sleeve band tee — a nice touch for anyone who appreciates funk music and breathable cotton — paired with dove-gray running shorts from his lifestyle brand Pleasing. Those shorts have not been released yet, making this their public debut, which means Styles essentially used a morning training run to tease new merch. As one does.
On his feet: New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080v14s, one generation behind the v15 that dropped in January. The 1080 series is a high-cushion daily trainer, the kind of shoe you reach for on easy runs and recovery days — not the Nike Alphafly 3 carbon-plated racers he wore to run 2:59 in Berlin. So this was not a workout with a clock attached to it. It was base mileage. The unglamorous stuff that actually builds fitness.
He finished the look with Jacques Marie Mage sunglasses and wired headphones with his phone in hand. The sunglasses are a flex. The wired headphones with the phone in hand are what every runner in the world has done at least once and hated themselves for.
The Schedule That Makes This Impressive
Here is what makes Tuesday’s run notable: Styles is, at this exact moment, one of the busiest humans on earth. He is promoting his fourth studio album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, hosting and performing on Saturday Night Live this weekend, and preparing for a world tour that opens May 16 in Amsterdam.
That tour includes a 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden from late August through October, which could line up well for a few big marathons around the same time (wink, wink).
And yet: he was on the Williamsburg Bridge at 7 a.m. in running shorts, reportedly training four days a week and building his weekly mileage base. If you have ever tried to keep a structured marathon training plan going during a hectic stretch of life, you know how hard that actually is.
So What Is He Training For?
He has not said. But the timing is interesting. He is in shape, clearly building mileage, and his Madison Square Garden residency wraps at the end of October — right when the New York City Marathon takes place. Berlin, which he already knows well, is in late September. Chicago is in October. Any of them would fit.
When Runner’s World asked him about running through New York City as one of the most famous people alive, his answer was pretty good. “Well, the main thing is that you’re always moving,” he said. “You can turn a corner wherever. I think with people who see me, it’s a bit more ‘Was that…?’ rather than, ‘Oh look it’s him!’ And by that time, you’re already gone.”
Runner’s World is putting him on the cover of its April print issue. Which makes sense. If you ran 2:59 at marathon pace while also being Harry Styles, you’d probably let people know.
