How to Run Faster At The Boston Marathon

Picture from Runnersworld.com

I came across a recently published article detailing the training of 917 runners (495 women, 422 men) who qualified and ran in the 2022 Boston marathon (Lempke et al, 2025). The majority of them finishing in mid-3 hour marathon times. So definitely relevant insights for most serious recreational runners if you want faster marathon timings.

This interesting new study tracked running duration, volume, cross training and changes in training frequency between the last 12 months to 4 months before the race day. Yes, you read correctly, the runners were training 12 months in advance before racing. In addition, training intensity distribution like steady state runs, quality sessions and interval sessions were also analyzed.

Let me highlight the relevant findings. The study found that those who had longer running durations, higher quality ('hard') sessions, running distance and/or volume from 12 months to 4 months before the race was consistently linked to faster timings.

From 12 months to 4 months before the race, those who ran more than 10 hours weekly predicted significantly better performance than 5-7.5 hours, 2.5-5 hours and less than 2.5 hours per week of training (pictured above). For reference, the weekly mileage for the 495 women studied ran 64.4 ± 24 each week while the 422 men studied ran 67.6 ± 26.2 km on average.

Each extra run shaved 3-4 minutes off race time, while each extra quality session was worth 16-17 minutes better timing on average. Running an extra 1 km a week was worth about 3-4 minutes off marathon time.

In the final 4 months to race day, all of the above variables predicted better performance. Runners who included cross training in the final 4 months ran significantly better. Each extra session per week translated to being faster by 6 minutes of finishing time.

Reducing running frequency in the final 4 months improved performance. The runners who decreased their total weekly running sessions averaged 3 minutes faster than those who maintained or increased the frequency of their running sessions.

Just in case you got confused reading the above (I did at first) where the study said adding an extra run each week helps in the final 4 months, but also said a reduction in frequency was associated with better performance (pictured above)This means that between 2 runners, the runner running 5 times a week would be faster than another runner running 3 times a week. However, a runner who reduced their runs by 2 runs a week would run faster than another runner who only reduced their runs by 1.

Note that this study was survey based and depended on what the runners recorded in their training logs. Most runners tend to be meticulous about this, I know I was. There was also no mention of what the runners did for Cross training. In addition to cycling or deep water running, I also did strength training.

Reference

DeJong Lempke AF, Ackerman KE, Stellingwerrff T et al (2025). Training Volume And Training Frequency Changes Associated With Boston Marathon Race Performance. Sports Med. DOI: 10.1007/s4027-025-02304-4