Musician and actor Harry Styles joined a select band of runners on Sunday when he broke the three-hour barrier in the Berlin Marathon.
That despite it being the hottest edition on record as temperatures climbed towards 30 degrees – and even slowed down many of the elite runners.
London Marathon winner Sabastian Sawe had been on world record pace with a first half marathon of 60 minutes and 16 seconds but crossed the line with a time of 2:02:16, almost four minutes ahead of his closest rivals.
Styles meanwhile achieved an excellent split – he ran the first half in 1:29:08, and then the second in 1:30:05. That gave him a combined time for the 26.2 miles / 42.2km of 2:59:13, which placed him in the top 5%.
PB by nearly 25 minutes!
It was his second marathon of the year and a massive improvement on his time in Tokyo in March of 3:24:07.
In Berlin, Styles ran under the alias ‘Sted Sarandos’ with race number 31,261, as you can see from the photo below.
Both Berlin and Tokyo are part of the World Marathon Majors series which are the seven biggest from around the globe – the others are London, New York, Boston, Chicago and Sydney.
To go under three hours is a big achievement for any amateur runner – and the rate of the 31-year-old’s progress suggests faster still could be on the cards in the future.
READ MORE: What is a good marathon time?
Which shoes did he wear?
Grammy Award winner Styles, whose musical career began in 2010 as part of One Direction, joined 55,000 other runners in Berlin and as well as the false name he also blended in with the crowds wearing a pair of sunglasses and headband.
And the big question for us was which carbon-plated running shoes did he opt for?
The answer appeared to be Nike Alphafly 3s, which are specifically aimed at marathon runners.
