SIX MINUTES and 52 seconds. For 11 years, these numbers had burned in my psyche. Six minutes and 52 seconds—the pace per mile I would need to run to break three hours in the marathon.

Why three hours? Partly because three hours was my Boston Marathon qualifying time. But also, for me, three hours was a personal quest: my Mount Everest, four-minute mile, first step on the moon.

For 11 years I trained and ran, trained and ran, always falling short. I came close. I ran a 3:04 in 1978, and had most recently done a 3:10, but my prize eluded me. I began to feel I had a regular date with the Wall. Every race, around the 20-mile mark, there we were again, meeting like old pals. Of course this was not a pal I valued, and I tried many times to break our date, but he’d have none of it.

PATIENCE PAYS OFF

May 21, 1989, was warm and sunny in Cleveland. In preparing for the Revco Cleveland Marathon, I had followed a modified version of Jeff Galloway’s training plan, including 1-mile intervals and long runs of over 26 miles. I had also managed to lose a few pounds.

As the race began, I began cranking out those 6:52 miles. The halfway mark came up so fast, it surprised me. Exactly one hour and 30 minutes!

At 20 miles, I began to feel those doubts and fears, but I reminded myself that I might never have a better opportunity to fulfill my quest. I actually picked my pace up a bit.

Those last 6.2 miles are etched forever into my memory. As each mile passed, I grew more confident. Yes, they were getting tougher. And I still wasn’t 100% sure I could keep my pace. But I was flying—my feet weren’t even touching the ground.

Still, I didn’t relax until the finish line came into view a quarter-mile ahead. At this point everything changed to slow motion. I was going to make it, and nothing could stop me. The spectators were cheering wildly as I sprinted past others for whom the distance and heat had taken a greater toll.

Just before the finish line, I felt a strong urge to do a cartwheel but decided it was too risky (this was way before such displays became fashionable among world-record breakers). I just ran through the finish line like everyone else. My time was 2:59:16. After 11 long years, I had reached my goal.

A few weeks later, a friend called to tell me that Boston had relaxed the qualifying standards. All I needed now was 3:15. The 3:10 I had done earlier in the year had me qualified! But that news didn’t matter: I had conquered my Everest. I had walked on the moon.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THREE-HOUR KIND: HITS AND MISSES

Of my 42 marathons, 11 have been near misses (3:01 to 3:05), and 7 have been hits (in 2:58 or 2:59). The remaining 24 marathons were slower—big misses. Some of these were training runs; others were poorly executed attempts that ended in crash-and-burns. Let’s forget about those 24. Here, in chronological order, is a list of the races I prefer to remember, my 18 hits and near misses:

HOW TO BREAK THE THREE-HOUR BARRIER

In the midst of the second running boom, average and median times for runners completing marathons have soared. In the initial running boom of the 1970s and early 1980s, most of the runners in big-city marathons would have finished by about 3:30. In the late 1990s, however, as the participation has skyrocketed, so have the times. Many runners are still on the roads at 4:30.

In my view, there’s nothing wrong with running just to finish. In fact, finishing should be the goal of most first-time marathoners. Some, however, still do aspire to certain time goals. These goals vary by individual, but times that end in zeros are popular yardsticks. Three hours is tough. To run 26 consecutive 6:52 miles is quite a task for most non-elite runners. Yet it can be done. All that’s required is the right training and mental attitude. Nice race conditions are helpful, as well. I’ll describe what worked for me—maybe it will work for you, too.

SOUL SEARCHING

The first question I asked myself was, “Why do I want to do this?” There are plenty of other running-related goals out there. Why this one? For me, three hours had been just beyond my reach for many years and eventually evolved into a personal standard of excellence.

My second question was, “How much am I willing to sacrifice?” For any goal, there is a price to pay. You need to determine the amount of time and effort you’re prepared to endure. In terms of time, working toward my goal cost me about 8 to 10 hours per week on strictly running, plus 2 to 5 more hours on related activities such as weight lifting, stretching, and driving to and from races. In terms of wear and tear on my body from hard training, the price is more difficult to name. I was frequently tired and sore, and I had my share of overuse injuries. But I’d have to say the benefits of hard training outweigh the costs.

TRAINING PLANS

Like many runners, I looked for a recipe to follow. I asked only that someone tell me exactly what to do in order to crack three hours, and I would meet or exceed that. Several sources provided detailed training plans that just didn’t work for me. It took me some time to realize that a cookie-cutter, recipe-type training plan just wasn’t going to cut it. I learned I needed to develop my own plan, borrowing the best ideas from different sources and tailoring them to suit my circumstances and capabilities.

Tempo runs? Mile intervals? Hill training? Long runs? Marathon-pace runs? You probably need them all. Variety, and the proper mix of training runs, is the key to any training program. In my own case, there was very little I didn’t do. While some methods and techniques worked better than others, I knew it was the whole, the sum total, that really mattered.

Since the most important facet of training is a solid, well-founded plan, here’s a list of training elements that have worked for me. Whether you can incorporate them into your own plan is up to you.

• Injury Prevention. Minor injuries will slow you down and put you behind in your training, while major ones will take you out of the running entirely. Fortunately, there are as many ways to prevent injuries as there are to get injured. The ones that work best are rest, stretching, and strength training, but the right combination of all the training elements is the most important consideration.
• Build-Up. You need to be in shape to begin with. Most training plans are based on 12- to 16-week build-up periods. I have been most successful by staying in near marathon shape year-round, with the three to four month increase in intensity and speed prior to the event.
• Long Runs. The cornerstones of any marathon-training program are your long runs. My approach is different from most. I do my long runs weekly, year-round. I consider any run over 18 miles a long run. Three months or so before a race, I’ll start doing longer runs, typically 24- to 26-milers. It helps me to alternate a longer run (25 miles) one week with a shorter run (20 miles) the next week. The pace of these runs is extremely important. I learned that last year when I ran everything too fast and wondered why I was tired all the time. Don’t leave your best runs in training; take it easy for your long runs. An 8:00–8:30 per mile pace is about right for a three-hour marathoner. For confidence and pacing practice, you might want to try the last four to five miles of one or two of your long runs at that magic 6:52 pace. But I discourage trying to do more than that.
• Other Races. It helps marathoners to run other races during their build-up. Some even use another marathon as a training run. Although it may help to schedule some rest around some of these other races, you need to keep an attitude that you’re just “training through” them. Don’t lose focus of your ultimate goal.

• Rest. Every guide to marathon training stresses the need to build rest into your program. Many recommend a cycle of three hard weeks followed by one easy week. This regimen has worked for me. I always plan one or two easy days (read: completely off) per week, one easy week (1/2 to 2/3 normal mileage) per month, and one easy month (say, January) per year.

• Hills. For some reason I don’t mind running around an oval over and over for my speed workouts, but I do mind running up and down the same hill over and over. Maybe it’s just me, but one way to avoid this tedium is to find a very hilly course to run on, and to do it regularly. Regardless of how you do your hill workouts, you do need to do them. I’ve been successful at the sub-3:00 game only when I’d incorporated weekly hill runs for the preceding three to four months.

• Tempo Runs. There are plenty of excellent guides to tempo running. One that influenced me is recommended by Jack Daniels. I like to do a three- to four-mile run at my current half-marathon pace—usually around 6:30 to 6:40 per mile. I try to fit these in about every other week, although a race (anywhere from 5K to 15K) will also work. Tempo runs are best for periods of time when you’re not racing.

• Mile Intervals. I learned this trick from Galloway’s Book on Running. In training for a sub-3:00 marathon, gradually work up to 12 repeat miles of 6:25 miles. My approach has been to work up to eight or nine repeats fairly fast, and then gradually increasing the speed of each one. By the time it’s ready for the taper, I might be going about them at a slightly faster pace, maybe 6:15 to 6:20. I have also done them weekly, usually midweek, unless I had a marathon-pace run scheduled for the same week.

• Marathon-Pace Runs. These are training runs done at marathon pace. After a warm-up of a few miles, you should run 4 to 12 miles at your goal pace of 6:52 or so. These should never be done more than every two weeks, and very little other speedwork should be planned for the same week.

• 400- to 800-Meter Repeats. Repeats at this distance may have some benefit for marathon runners, but perhaps not as much as the mile intervals, hills, and tempo runs. It’s important to schedule these at least two days away from other speed work.

• Strength Training. Push-ups and stomach crunches need to be done fairly often: maybe four to five times per week. You should also try to weight train two or three times per week. Light weights (of course) with three sets of 8 to 15 repetitions work for most runners. I feel that strength training helps the leg muscles as much as the upper body. I use extremely light weights, however, for my leg curls, leg extensions, and squats. I do a variety of upper-body weight exercises, too, but concentrate most on arm curls and the bench press.

• Stretching. As I get older, stretching becomes more and more important. I concentrate mostly on the hamstrings, quads, IT band, and calves. There’s plenty of information available on the types of stretches to do and when to do them. I do some stretching after most of my hard runs, and then I do more in the evenings.

• Taper. Although you should cut back on your total mileage for at least two weeks leading up to your marathon, you should not necessarily decrease your intensity. What has worked for me is to cut mileage back to about 50 to 60% for those last two weeks, and to do the same with speed work. In other words, I might come down from 65 miles per week to about 35, and from 9 total miles of speed work to 5.

• Execution of the Race Plan. Yes, you need a race plan—and to fulfill your goals, you need to stick to your plan. For me, this was simple to figure: I needed to run each mile in 6 minutes and 52 seconds. Sometimes it’s necessary to adjust for a slightly slower start, but my plans invariably involved running even splits. All of my successful sub-3:00 efforts came with even to slightly negative splits. All of my near-misses were the result of positive splits. And this should be true for you, too. Research has shown that running even or slightly negative splits yields the fastest times at all distances.

Poorly executed marathon race plans are almost always the result of starting out too fast. If you’re training properly, a seven-or-so-minute pace for the first few miles will feel like you’re barely moving. Resist the temptation to pick it up—remember that patience is the most common virtue among successful marathoners.

Finally, recognize that the real race always begins at mile 20. That’s when the miles are taking their toll. If you have planned well and trained to be mentally and physically tough enough to pick up your tempo at this point, you’ll succeed.