Why run a marathon in 3 hours?

I was curious about marathon finishing times and what it meant to complete a marathon under 3 hours. So I started searching around on the Internet to get an idea of how this ranks. The first graph I found was one that showed the marathon finishing times based on a percentage of total finishers, for major marathons across 10 million runners. It forms a rough bell curve distribution, so reading it as such, if I achieve my goal of a sub 3 hour marathon, this would put me roughly at the top 2 - 4% of marathon runners. The other interesting thing to note are where runners set their goals. You can see a sharp drop off at the 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5 and 5 hour marks, showing that their marathon goal finish times are rounded to these times and achieved accordingly.

So why choose sub 3 hours as a goal?

To put it into context, the current fastest time for a marathon (world record time) is 2:02:57 hours, set in Berlin 2014 by Dennis Kimetto (Kenya). So this sets the upper limit of human endurance and speed that requires talent, years of dedication, and the highest level of coaching and nutrition to attain it.

The average marathon finishing time globally (in 2014), was 4:13:23 hours (for men) and 4:42:33 (for women). This average also lines up quite well in the graph above being in the centre of the bell curve.

Then we have the qualification time for the Boston Marathon. The table below shows the current time needed to qualify:

I'm within the 35-39 category, so a sub 3 hour marathon should guarantee me a spot at the Boston Marathon. Note: Although 3:10hrs is the qualifying time for my age group, achieving this time will not guarantee a spot as its also based on a limited number of allocations and only the top fastest times submitted will receive a spot. So a faster time will offer a better chance of qualifying.

Lastly, I think the following excerpt from the Bridger Ridge Run webpage (where the 14 week Marathon training plan is from) is a great summary of why I'd like to go under 3 hours:

If I can hit my goal of a sub 3 hour marathon, I'd:

• be considered "darn good marathon runner",
• have a great chance at qualifying for the Boston Marathon, and
• build a solid running foundation for an amazing marathon leg of an Ironman race and one day qualify for Ironman Kona.

Although the first point is for a bit of fun, the other two points are definitely worth the hard work to improve my running and get faster. Bring on the next marathon training session!