Of the 7800 Runners who finished the Mumbai marathon in 2020, only 41 runners have run under 3 hours. That is about 0.5% of all the finishers.  It is every amateur runner’s dream to reach the sub-3-hour mark in a marathon.  So what it takes to run a sub-3 hour marathon?

In this episode, we talk about how to strategize a sub-3-hour marathon.

• Journey to Sub 3-hour marathon


• Training approach


• Handling the progress plateau


• Role of a coach/mentor


• Mental preparation & handling race anxiety

Guest Intro

Dilip Kumar

Dilip is a tech entrepreneur and an avid endurance sports enthusiast. He finished his last two marathons in under 3 hours. The most recent being the Boston Marathon this April 2022 with a time of 2:59:22 . He has a keen interest in performance science & technology which has been an anchor to his own training philosophy. And he uses the same approach to guide other amateur runners as a coach. You can find him on Strava or on his blog at www.dilipkumar.co. Dilip was also a guest for episode 7 in the last season, Mind training for working athletes.

Vikram BJ

Vikram has been an athlete all his life, he has run a sub-3-hour marathon on 5 different occasions, his Delhi Marathon in 2019 is at 2 hrs and 55mins, and his personal best. Vikram has recently run a sub-3-hour marathon in Berlin. Apart from running Vikram is a Speed Skating National champion (inline speed skating) 7 times. When he is not on the field he is an entrepreneur & distributor of a leading inline skating brand, Simmons Rana.

Related Resources

Science of Endurance Training  

Improve Balance for Beter Running

How to improve Running Stride