Harry Styles is going the distance!
The “Aperture” singer, 32, appears shirtless in the Spring 2026 issue of Runner’s World, baring his ripped abs and heavily tattooed body while hitting the pavement.
The cover image, which the magazine unveiled on Tuesday, March 3, features Styles stretching on a sunny day while wearing just a pair of cheetah-print shorts and Oakley sunglasses. Other photos from the shoot feature the three-time Grammy winner posing with his hands on his hips in a vintage Donald Duck cap, taking an ice bath and smiling for the camera.
For the accompanying interview, Styles sat down with legendary author Haruki Murakami, whose 2008 memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, inspired the former One Direction member to begin training for marathons.
Harry Styles Through the Years: From One Direction Heartthrob to Rock God
“It freed me from the idea that music had to be an unhealthy profession and I had to be this tortured soul,” Styles told Murakami, 77, of the book. “Your point is that being healthy makes you able to be an artist for a long time, that you can be a structured, healthy person and make great work. So I have a lot of gratitude to you for that.”
Styles started running in his early 20s but did not participate in his first marathon until he was 31. He completed the Tokyo Marathon in three hours and 24 minutes in March 2025 and the Berlin Marathon in an even more impressive two hours and 59 minutes that September.
“I usually drink a lot of water, but I was really scared of peeing myself during the [Berlin] Marathon, so I fueled up in the morning with a lot of electrolytes and not too much actual water, then I drank lots during the race,” Styles told Murakami, adding, “Usually before every long run, I eat the biggest croissant I can find.”
While in Berlin, Styles also spent plenty of time hitting local nightclubs.
Look Back on Harry Styles’ Hair Transformation: Shaved Head and Beyond
“Good electronic music is so good, you know — especially the melodic aspect,” he explained in the Q&A. “When you’re out at night, it’s such a community, but you’re also watching people have such individual experiences.”
Ultimately, that feeling inspired Styles to make his fourth solo album, Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally., which will be released on Friday, March 6.
“I wanted to recreate [what] I had on the dance floor, being lost in instrumentation and the musicality,” he said. “It was so immersive, like, this is how I want to feel when I’m on stage too. I don’t want it to feel like a sermon I’m delivering. I wanted it to feel like, ‘Oh, we’re in this music together. Like I’m in it with you.’”
Styles will take the album on the road this spring and summer. He announced his Together, Together tour in January, including a 30-night residency at Madison Square Garden in New York City and 12 shows at Wembley Stadium in London.
Former One Direction Members: Where Are They Now?
Styles admitted to Runner’s World that he did not plan on returning to the music industry so soon after wrapping up his 169-date Love on Tour in July 2023.
“Something I’ve often struggled with, in the middle of a tour, is feeling like I’m not sure what I’m giving, not sure what I’m adding to the world,” he mused. “Especially when the reward system and the kind of … adulation that you can receive feels so loud. Like clearly I’m getting so much from this, I’m getting all this energy. People are giving me so much, which I deeply appreciate. But what am I contributing? At times I felt quite existential about that.”
Ultimately, though, Styles’ running playlist inspired him to get back out there.
“When I started listening to more electronic music, the shift felt just very hypnotic, like, ‘Oh, I’m really lost in this thing,’” he said. “It was helpful to my running to get to that place where I felt like I was meditating right there. It makes the time go by in such a different way.”
