First thing please don't listen to Jimmy's advice
which, as I understand it says "run really slowly most of the time, run really really fast occasionally and never run at your race pace"
Maybe its the right approach for cycling, which is a very different sport to race compared to running. Cycling is massively tactical and races are not undertaken at a consistent effort, most of a cycle race is done really easy. Most individual cyclists will only crank it out hard for a short period of a few minutes within a race.
Anyone I've ever spoken to or anything I've ever read says that the key to good Endurance running is to do plenty of running at race pace, not all your running, but a decent bit.
These are Tempo runs.
It makes you familiar with that pace, it improves your running efficiency, you become comfortable with it.
Doing runs at race pace does not mean doing race distance, as Mandovark says.
Tempo runs (race pace runs) don't need to be over long.
One approach that I have found really effective in developing race endurance is to embed a tempo session within a longer run.
example - based on your 3 hour target
your weekly long run might be 2hrs 15mins (3/4 of race)
spend the first 45 minutes running easy, warming up
spend the middle 45 minutes at your target race pace (or effort)
spend the last 45 minutes running steady (which will feel easy relative to race pace)
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