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Sub 3 hour marathon at the Boston Marathon 2025 - Amoljit Singh Gill's journey to accomplishing his dream
Newton Hills - Boston Marathon 2025 - EYES ON A SUB 3 HOUR MARATHON TIME!
BATHINDA HALF MARATHON 2018
I took to distance running in 2018 with the half marathon (21.1 km) at the New Delhi Marathon in Feb 2018. Being from the Indian Armed Forces we are subjected to rigorous physical tests and running distances upto 10 km but never gone beyond that. I considered myself a novice in distance running and a timing of 1:45:32 in my first half marathon was pretty decent and got me hooked onto running. I started to research more on distance running and all that it entails. Interactions with fellow runners in the forces gave me further insights.
I decided to seek professional help and the searches on the net threw up Nivedita Samanta & FitRabbits. I loved the name of the enterprise and the fact that Coach Nivedita seemed really passionate about her work. I signed up and thus started my journey into the fascinating world of distance running.
MAIDEN MARATHON 2019
MAIDEN MARATHON & PERSONAL FOIBLES A few half marathons later, I ran my first marathon (42.2 km) at Tata Mumbai Marathon in Jan 2020. My honeymoon with distance running seemed over as I had aimed to finish in 3:45 but struggled to finish in 3:56:42. I realised running a marathon is an entirely different ballgame. What followed was a break from running due to Covid and then injuries induced by my poor lifestyle. I stopped my coaching programme with Nivedita and became a centurion as far as my body weight was concerned !
After a break of almost more than two years, I motivated myself to start running during my tenure in Gangtok. The clean air and beautiful surroundings were the external stimuli I needed, I think. I started training with my Tata Mumbai Marathon 2020 training programme and some guidance from Mr Vivek Menon (a friend from Mumbai) from July 2022 onwards. I also added strength training and a healthy lifestyle in terms of diet (increased protein intake) and sleep (ensuring at least seven hours on most days).
Tata Mumbai Marathon 2023 was when I was going to test myself again. I had put in the hard work but the demons of 2020 still haunted me. I started very cautiously and it seemed that I was waiting to hit the WALL at 32 km. I was pleasantly surprised when I felt strong and full of energy at that point. I accelerated and every few kms I was surprised that I was feeling fine and seemed well on course to beat my target time of 3:30. I finished in 3:18:24 with a negative split. I was over the moon !
It was at this moment, across the finish line of Tata Mumbai Marathon 2023 that I was first introduced to the term – ‘BQ’ (Boston Qualified). A lot of fellow runners were asking me if I had BQed?? I did some research on BQ and it was basically achieving the qualifying time to run ‘The Boston Marathon’ and thus started a love affair. The Boston Dream had been conceived in me.
I realized I needed to go below 3:10 to BQ for my age group. I had signed up for the New Delhi Marathon 2023 and decided to give it a shot. With a gap of just five weeks from Tata Mumbai Marathon, I ran the New Delhi Marathon and finished in 3:08:18. It was definitely a BQ but way too slow to make the cut-off, which generally is in the region of 6-8 minutes below the BQ time. I needed professional support again.
Boston Qualified
with a 16 minutes 29 seconds buffer!
RUN LIKE A RABBIT TO BQ! Once the decision was made, I knew that no one was a better fit than Nivedita and I reached out to her. Both of us went back to the drawing board and after a year of training that included a lot of runs around a 200m helipad, I clocked a 3:03:31 at the New Delhi Marathon 2024. It was a BQ and I had a buffer of six minutes and 29 seconds. The cut-off for Boston 2025 was six minutes and 51 seconds and I would have been agonizingly short by 22 secs ! As luck would have it, I was turning 45 before 21 Apr 2025 (date of the race) and thus was considered within the 45-49 age category and had a buffer of 16 minutes and 29 seconds.
I WAS IN! THE BOSTON DREAM WAS SLOWLY TURNING INTO A REALITY!
Human wants are endless. And I had a new WANT – RUNNING MY FIRST SUB 3 HOUR MARATHON AT BOSTON.
VDHM 2024 1:24:10
I shared this dream with my Coach, Nivedita, and we got down to business. She made a blue print for a slow build-up that included running, strength training, yoga and cross training. It was slow and deliberate. We did the strategic foundation work till the Vedanta Delhi Half Marathon 2024 and unlocked the timing of 1:24:10.
The plan was to race no marathons till Boston. We would focus on building up speed and test it at time trials planned at the Indian Navy Half Marathon (10 km) on 02 Feb 2025 and at the New Delhi Marathon (Half Marathon) on 23 Feb 2025. We were on course with timings of 37:54 & 1:21:44, respectively.
UPHILL & DOWNHILL REPS WITH RAVI!
NO HILLS IN DELHI, YOU SAY? Post this Nivedita put me through a gruelling four week training programme that included a lot of hill workouts (with whatever inclines we could manage in Delhi NCR). Emphasis was on downhill running as well as uphill running. Rinchen and Ravi were my constant companions through this gruelling period. Rinchen with all the support and Ravi pacing me at unearthly hours. They both made sure to always leave me with feedback that did not dishearten me and at the same time never let me get overconfident. Vijay, Gaurav and Peeyush also chipped in for a lot of my runs. Our favourite segment was the loops discovered by (the sadistically & clever) Nivedita during her cycling activity – Shankar Road, Prof Ramnath Vij (not Kovind- Coach!) Marg & Ridge Road. Our quest for hills took us as far as the NSG Campus in Manesar too. The toughest segment was the Mandir Lane - 800m of torture!
A niggling injury in the left groin that surfaced during the New Delhi Marathon 2025 started spreading to the left hamstring and glute also. It was a bother but not enough to hinder running. A quick visit to Paridhi Ojha at Enkinetik Performance Clinic made me temporarily fit till Boston, beyond which I would have to do proper rehab. Finally after a series of send-offs and warm wishes from my running group, Lutyens Road Runners, I was on my way to Boston. The dream was happening.
BOSTON STRONG 2:58:41
PERSONAL BEST & MY SECOND BOSTON QUALIFIED TIME!
THE BOSTON DREAM COMES ALIVE!
The flight to London was uneventful. At London suddenly every second person on the flight was wearing a Boston track or cap. It seemed that more than half the flight was filled with people going to Boston to run. I made a huge faux pas while waiting to board. Helen Obiri (two time Boston Women’s Champion) came and sat next to me for 30 mins in the waiting lounge and I had no idea that I was sitting next to greatness. No autographs and no photos due to my stupidity !
I landed in Boston and checked into my AirBnB. From the moment I landed, I felt a slight strain in my left hamstring but I shrugged it aside thinking it was due to the long flight. When it persisted the next day, I confided in Nivedita but she allayed my fears by saying it was a by-product of tapering. I followed her detailed notes to the T. As meticulous as she is, she gave me detailed notes on what and when to eat and drink, and what to do or not to do daily. Each and every piece of advice given by her stood me in good stead in hindsight.
I landed on a Thursday afternoon and was so jet lagged, that I skipped doing the mobility workout and after some basic shopping and dinner, I slept early against popular advice. I was up early the next day and post the mobility workout I went for a final speed check run of 11K through Harvard and along the Charles River. I visited the Expo the same day and did not waste any extra time other than collecting my bib and some memorabilia from the Adidas counter. An early evening was planned but dinner with some Indian friends got prolonged and I ended up sleeping at 11. Saturday was an easy 5K. Jeff, my American friend working in India, was kind enough to take his Honduran friends and me to the start point at Hopkinton and after a sumptuous lunch we drove the whole marathon route back. Jeff was running his sixth Boston and knew every minute detail of the route by heart. The rest of the day was spent relaxing. I stuck to meals of chicken and rice from a nearby Mediterranean restaurant to load up on carbs and save time in commuting. I was hydrating well and consciously trying to replace proteins with carbs in my diet from Friday onwards. I avoided doing any organized shakeout runs (Nivedita felt that you end up running much more and expending a lot of energy pre and post these organised runs) on Sunday and after a 30 min solo run, I did some stretching and just rested. I may have overdone the carbohydrate loading on Sunday after two huge meals of rice and kebabs. I slept early but woke up by 3 am as I was too excited to sleep long.
I followed my morning pre-race routine of loading up on carbs and some foam rolling. My bus loading was to start at 7.30 am from Boston Commons and I was there by 7.40 am. I was wearing an extra layer of throw away clothes including old woolen socks as gloves. I had carried a pair of old shoes from India too but as the weather was not cloudy at all. I wore my Alphaflys from the room itself. I decided not to struggle to get on a bus and wait patiently for the last lot and save energy by sitting on the pavement till such time. It proved to be a slightly unwise decision as by the time I mounted a bus it was already 8.30 am and the bus dropped us off only at 9.50 am. I barely had 35 mins till my start time. I discarded my layers in the bus itself and finished all my snacks including an energy bar, banana and carbohydrate mix in the bus. I slowly jogged my way through the Athletes Village and the crowds till the Staging Area. A quick loo break and I quickly consumed my gel and made it to my Corral 2 of Wave 2 (starting serial allotted to me based on my qualification time) at 10.20 am. I only had five minutes to do a quick warm-up and it was time to roll. I barely managed to do some leg swings. I was slightly irritated with myself for poor planning but calmed my mind and focused on the race.
THE RACE AS IT HAPPENED! Wave 2 was underway at 10.25 am sharp. The weather was perfect. Around 12 degrees Celsius with a smattering of clouds and no wind. I was to stick to a pace of 4.15/km for the first 5K but I found myself hovering around 4.20 pace due to the lack of warm up and the large crowds. I kept myself calm and slowly increased the pace and averaged 4.17 at the 5K mark. I was confident that I would make up time ahead. The idea was to be patient till crossing Heartbreak Hill and then go hell for leather with all I have left. I thought the course would be easier than I was feeling at the 5K mark but kept calm and trusted my training and hard work. I was consuming a gel every 5K and two salt capsules every 30 mins. I felt a little heavy on the stomach and every gel after 5K seemed to add to the heaviness. I made the mistake of not taking water at every station and was going to pay the price for this later.
Unlike other events I have taken part in, everyone who started with me kept running with me. The road wasn’t opening up. I was doing a check every 5K and seemed to be on course with my planned splits. The kms went by and finally I was approaching the famous Wellesley College and its legendary Scream Tunnel!! All the college girls were screaming for a kiss but I didn’t see any runner in my visual range get distracted. I was a good boy and kept running without kissing through the Scream Tunnel. I was so drawn by the energy that I almost skipped my gel at 20 km taking it a good 1 km later (SORRY, COACH)!
I was looking forward to the Newton Hills now. My left glute and hamstring were definitely under strain but holding up and not hindering my running. As we were approaching Newton, the headwinds built up and the cold gusts were stinging the face. This continued right through all of the series of four Newton Hills. My quads were already feeling trashed after a considerable amount of downhill running, and then the famous set of four Newton Hills appeared and these headwinds just made it more difficult.
Suddenly I noticed, a couple of ladies drafting behind me and I felt like a knight in shining armour for a few moments till the reality of the struggle hit me again. Somehow I pushed myself knowing that post Heartbreak Hill I will run for my life. Finally, Heartbreak Hill arrived and although I was beginning to strain, I knew the worst was soon going to be behind me.
As I crossed Heartbreak Hill, I knew I had sufficient gas left in the tank and a timing around 2:56 was within reach. I opened my stride and let go and barely had I reached the end of the downslope post Heartbreak Hill, that I felt cramps. It started with the right hamstring and calf and then on my next step, it started in my left hamstring and calf too. I was in panic for a few moments and felt my dream shattering. The lack of hydration had come to bite me. Salt capsules by themselves are of no use if not backed up with enough fluids. I calmed myself and realized that if I shortened my stride the cramp wasn’t being felt. So I tried to increase my cadence with a shorter stride. Popped a couple of salt capsules and took water at every station. I felt that I might just be able to carry the day through. I looked at my watch a million times to check the distance and pace. The average pace which had been at 4:12/km had dropped to 4:13/km. I knew I had no margin for error now. I looked out for the famous CITGO sign signalling a mile left and tried to feed off the energy of the crowd which was unparalleled. Thoughts of the hard work I had put in and the support of my inner circle kept pushing me through the occasional cramps.
Finally I came to the famous point from where you take a right on Hereford and then left on Boylston Street. The final sprint is a long one with five rows of crowds shouting and cheering on both sides. I just was so zoned into the timing and the finish line and as I neared I remembered that I had to get some good finish line poses too !
I crossed the finish line and stopped my watch and it read 2:59:03.
I just wanted to immediately start crying – I don’t know why. Maybe tears of joy at achieving my target or maybe tears of relief at getting through when all seemed over. I did the famous zombie walk and collected my medal and rushed to collect my luggage and get to my phone. I wanted to see my official timing and also call up Rinchen, Nivedita and Ravi. I needed to vent out everything with the people who mattered most. The official time read 2:58:41 and I was overjoyed. I made video calls to my Three Musketeers and cried and laughed and just soaked in the moment.
THE BOSTON DREAM WAS A REALITY. THE BOSTON DREAM HAD BEEN REALISED.
5 things I learnt from my first Marathon!
Running a marathon - all 42.2. km of it is not easy. It’s not meant to be easy. You can definitely ease the pain and have an enjoyable race day, though. Arijit Ganguly, newly minted marathoner from the FitRabbits running team shares his journey.
Running a marathon - all 42.2. km of it is not easy. It’s not meant to be easy. You can definitely ease the pain and have an enjoyable race day, though. Arijit Ganguly, newly minted marathoner from the FitRabbits running team shares his journey.
After actively running for almost 3 years (~600 kms in 2017, ~800 kms in 2018, ~600 kms in the first half of 2019) including 9 Half Marathons, I finally decided to take the giant leap and train for a marathon. Initially, I didn’t have a specific race in mind but as per the timelines, a Q1 2020 race was something I was looking for. Luck happened and I was selected on the ballot for the only WMM Major in APAC, the Tokyo Marathon! I had 5 months to prepare. However, I was diagnosed with Dengue that took most of November from me. It then left me with 13 weeks before race day.
2 weeks before I toed my first marathon start line, organisers cancelled the Tokyo Marathon for amateur runners due to the uncontrolled spread of Coronavirus. Yes, it was heartbreaking but I was super lucky to have the IDBI New Delhi Marathon in a week's time. The only hitch for me to consider - do I have enough time to taper? - only 1 week between a 65 KM week (45 KM weekend) and race day. A quick call with the coach and we decided to take the calculated risk - Game On!
I finished my first marathon with a timing of 3:56:47. It was a dream debut and I can’t think of anything that could have gone better. Here are 5 things that I learnt from this journey of becoming a marathoner.
1. Give yourself at least 14 weeks and stick to the training plan. There is no short cut here. You can find multiple training plans online or you can train under a coach as I did and I will tell you why.
Running for 60-80 kms a week takes a heavy toll on your body and it’s key that you train and then cross the 42.195 finish line without an injury.
This is where a coach adds a lot of value - tweak the plan based on improvement in performance, pains and injuries during the training cycle, prioritize areas that need more focus than others - can be running form, cadence, speed etc.
On Rajpath, more than half way done!
2. Good sleep is super important and underestimated. There were days when I had to pick between running and sleeping and I would pick sleeping to ensure I am getting enough rest and then distributed some of the distance to the rest of the running days to maintain the mileage (after consulting with coach).
The importance of sleep is even more in the week before the race. You trained hard, got all the mileage to back you - now all you need is a fresh pair of legs that have just recovered from the crazy mileage. Most Garmin watches let you track your sleep.
I slept 9h on Thursday night, 7.5h on Friday night and 5h on Saturday night (the race started at 4 am so I had to wake up at 2 AM).
Image: Me in Blue, Shantanu (pacing me on the left)
3. Start slow and ensure you have enough left in you to be able to perform better in the second half. My target race pace was 5:37 min per km for a 3h57min finish.
I started at a pace of 6 min per km for the first 3 km to get into the rhythm, warm up properly and settle into a mental state that this will now go on for almost 40 kms and 4 hours!
One of the things from the race that made me really happy was being able to do a negative split - that too by more than 8 minutes. (First half 2:02:27 second half 1:54:20 - this was about 3 minutes faster than by Half Marathon Personal Best)
There will be times in the first half that you will feel you can run faster - save that oomph for the second half! Luckily a friend agreed to pace me for the 2nd half and I remember him telling me how amazing it is to increase pace at the time everyone else is slowing down. It’s an unbelievable high!
Last 6 km to go!
4. Mastering the psychology of “Mind over muscle”. This has been explained in the book How Bad Do you Want It by Matt Fitzgerald. I spent 30 minutes reading some key pages during the last week before going to sleep.
In a nutshell, it explains that one cannot improve as an endurance athlete except by changing one’s relationship with perception of effort.
Hard physical limits exist but almost no athlete ever reaches them because the purely psychological limit of perceived effort tolerance is already encountered first. The slowing down, in most cases is not mechanistic, but voluntary!
Last 50 metres. Sprinting to the finish!
5. Have at least one training run simulating the race day gel plan (and salt capsules if it’s part of your plan) - most likely it will be the longest of your training runs. Replicate the scenario that you will have on the race day - carry the waist pouch/ hydration pack/ water bottle you plan to have during the race day.
I have seen a lot of runners not feeling comfortable/ sometimes with nausea when they consume the 4th/ 5th gel on the race day.
Plan the gel as per the water stops. I took gels at 8K, 16K, 24K, 32K and 39K and salt caps at 10K, 20K, 30K.
Next up, Berlin Marathon 2020.
Please share any takeaways from your marathon experience!
Thank you, Ari for sharing your experiences! So proud to have been part of your journey.
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