In the past 24 hours, A-List pop singer Harry Styles has made countless headlines for his impressive finish at Sunday’s Tokyo Marathon. The former One Direction boy band star clocked 3:24:07 over the 42.2-km course, taking 6,010th place overall. His performance leaves many fans wondering how major celebrities manage to squeeze marathon training into their busy schedules–but it seems that musicians, with their simultaneous singing and dancing on stage, make better endurance athletes than we might’ve thought.
The way Harry Styles is literally so loved for everything he does☺️ pic.twitter.com/DBv8daA1H3
— Britty🛰🖤 (@moondancerry) March 2, 2025
Styles’ training regime
Styles reportedly has a serious training regimen. His high-intensity days begin with a 10 to 30-minute jog warmup, followed by an all-out mile run–Styles’s best mile stands at 5:13. The British singer then completes 100 pushups, sit-ups and squats in eight minutes. He continues with free weights, inclined treadmill sprints, core and stretching. Health and fitness writer
besides being a singer, composer, actor… he is also an athlete, men should start apologizing for not being harry styles pic.twitter.com/fq4iYrte1j
— anna bea (@axlsugar) March 2, 2025
World’s fastest musicians
Styles’s marathon pace of 4:51/km is fast, placing him on the list with the world’s top runner musicians.
8. Sean “Diddy” Combs: 4:14.54 at the 2003 New York City Marathon.
7. Flea (Michael Balzary) of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: 3:41:49 at the 2012 Los Angeles Marathon.
6. Alanis Morissette: 3:34:28 at the 2010 New York City Marathon.
5. Mike Malinin of the Goo Goo Dolls: 3:23:56 at the 2000 San Francisco Marathon.
4. Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA: 3:23:54 at the 1980 Stockholm Marathon.
3. Dan Hawkins of rock band The Darkness: 3:21:44 at the Virgin London Marathon.
2. Harry Judd of British pop rock band McFly: 3:23:40 at the 2024 London Marathon.
1. Stuart Murdoch of Scottish indie pop band Belle and Sebastian: 2:57.08 at the 1986 Glasgow Marathon.
Taylor Swift: a likely contender
It seems that singing more than 40 songs a night and dancing on stage for three hours isn’t as easy as pop star Taylor Swift makes it look. In 2023, Swift revealed her unique method of preparing for the Eras Tour–singing her entire setlist while running on the treadmill. Her strength trainer later told Vogue that the singer, when not on tour, completes a strength program six days a week and was in the gym for up to two hours a day.
See Taylor Swift cover “Jumpman” and faceplant on a treadmill in a hilarious new Apple ad https://t.co/vviO0UqfVq pic.twitter.com/3Rzjl3g8GV
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) April 1, 2016
Now that she’s done her world tour, we can’t to see her join this list of fast musician marathoners.
