Sunday, September 29, 2024

Race Report: 2024 Berlin Marathon

In late September, I traveled to Berlin with Marathon Tours & Travel to run the Berlin Marathon.  This is the second time I ran this race.  I also ran it in 2016.

Foreign travel is expensive, so I rarely go back to run the same race again.  I had two reasons for going back to Berlin.  My first reason was to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  Of the six World Marathon Majors, Berlin is the only one where I had not run a Boston qualifier.  I’ll get to the second reason later.

I was able to get into the marathon through the lottery.  I wanted to stay at a hotel that was close to where the race started and finished, but when I started pricing hotels, I was shocked how expensive they were.  I could’ve stayed at a hotel that was farther away, but I didn’t want to spend half of my time on trains.  I also wanted to have the convenience of walking to the start on the morning of the race.

Going to Berlin with Marathon Tours was expensive, but not any more expensive than it would’ve been to book a close hotel on my own.  If I was going to spend that much, I wanted the benefits of going with a tour group.  To save money, I shared a hotel room with my friend, Tom.  I’ve known Tom for about 13 years.

Wednesday, September 25

I left Minneapolis Wednesday night on an overnight flight to Amsterdam.  My flight wasn’t until 9:20 PM.  I don’t know why I scheduled such a late flight.  I booked this flight months ago, so it’s hard to recall what other options I might have had.

One good thing about having such a late departure is that it gave me plenty of time to do a quality training run on Wednesday.  I wouldn’t run again until Saturday.

Thursday, September 26

My flight to Amsterdam arrived on time, but my flight to Berlin was delayed.  By the time I got to Berlin, it was 5:30 PM.  It took another 45 minutes to get to my hotel.

There was a welcome reception for all the runners who were traveling with Marathon Tours.  By the time I checked in and brought my bags up to my room, it was already 6:30.

The reception was so crowded that I had trouble finding Tom, but he eventually found me.  We were at the reception until 8:00 when it ended.

I went to bed early, but couldn’t get to sleep until 1 AM.

Friday, September 27

Our hotel package included a buffet breakfast.  After breakfast, me met in the lobby for a half day city tour of Berlin.  Our first stop was the East Side Gallery.  This is a section of the Berlin wall that was decorated with murals by local artists.

Our other stops included Museum Island, the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma, the Holocaust Memorial, the Topography of Terror museum, and Checkpoint Charlie.  I had seen most of these sights before, so I didn’t take many pictures.  We walked got out of the bus and walked through the Brandenburg gate.

After the tour, we were dropped off at the marathon expo.  There was a long line to get in.  I picked up my race materials for both the marathon and the 5K race.  We could spend as much time at the expo as we wanted.  After the expo, we were on our own to get back to the hotel.  Everyone who was running the marathon received a four-day transit pass, so it didn’t cost anything to take public transportation back to the hotel.

Tom and I were met at the expo by our friend Lynne.  The three of us had a late lunch at a German restaurant near the Brandenburg Gate.  Getting back to our hotel was an adventure, as the streets near the Brandenburg Gate were all blocked off for the opening ceremony of the marathon.

We had such a late lunch that neither of us needed another meal.  We ended up just eating dessert at the hotel before going to bed.

I had an easier time getting to sleep the second night, but I woke up several times during the night.

Saturday, September 28

They used to have a fun run Saturday morning called the breakfast run.  This year, they replaced the breakfast run with a 5K race.  The 5K race started at Potsdamer Platz, which was close to our hotel.  That made it really convenient.

The race didn’t start until 10:00 AM, so I was able to have a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before getting ready for the race.

The temperature was in the mid-50s, with a little bit of wind.  It was a short enough race that I could get away with being overdressed, so I wore my cheetah outfit.

Tom and Lynne were also doing the 5K race.  Lynne met us at our hotel, and we went to the start together.  The starting line was only about a block from our hotel.

The course for the 5K race was similar to the last 5K of the marathon route, but there was an extra out-and-back near the end.  I think they added the out-and-back so they could have us start at Potsdamer Platz, instead of having to block off more streets.  While the route wasn’t identical to the finish of the marathon, it was still a nice preview of the late kilometers of the marathon route.

The last two times I ran a 5K race the day before a marathon, I went all-out.  Both times, I felt like my performance in the marathon suffered as a result.  Instead of running a maximum effort, I used this race as a tune-up for the marathon.  My goal was to run it at about the same pace that I was planning to run the marathon.

In the first mile, I tried to tell myself that these were the first five kilometers of a marathon.  Subconsciously, I knew I wasn’t running that far, and I went a little too fast.  It didn’t help that I was surrounded by runners who were racing for a fast time.  I ended up running the first mile in 8:21, which is too fast.

In the second mile, I tried to relax, but I was still influenced by the pace of the runners around me.  That mile was a couple second slower, but it was still too fast.

By now, I was on the out-and-back section of the course.  After the turnaround, I was running toward the Brandenburg Gate and the finish line.  I was going into the wind, but I didn’t need to worry about the wind slowing me down.  I was going too fast anyway.

When we passed the point where we previously turned onto this street, we shifted over to the left side of the street.  The rest of the race was exactly the same way the marathon finishes.  I could see the gate ahead of me, but I resisted the temptation to pick up the pace.

After going through the gate, I could see the finish line, which was in a large city park called Tiergarten.  Having run the marathon before, I already knew about how far it was from the gate to the finish line.  It was still useful to see it again before the marathon.

I finished in 26:24.  I slowed down a little in the last mile, but it was still faster than my goal pace for the marathon.  This race was instructive.  I knew what this pace felt like.  If I felt the same way at the start of the marathon, I would know it was too fast.

After finishing, I received my medal.  On my way through the finish area, I also picked up a heat sheet, a water bottle and a cream-filled donut.  I was dressed warm enough that I didn’t need the heat sheet to make it back to my hotel, but I saved it to wear before the marathon.

The most direct route back to my hotel would have been to turn left and walk though Tiergarten.  Instead, everyone was directed to the right.  Our route out of the park took us to the opposite side.  To get to my hotel, I needed to cross the course, and there were barriers on both sides of the street.

On Friday, I had noticed a U-Bahn (subway) station near the Brandenburg Gate.  I was able to get to the other side of the course by going into the station, going under the street, and coming out the exit on the other side.  Once I was on the other side of the course, it was an easy walk back to the hotel.

After we each had time to get cleaned up, Tom and I had a light lunch at a restaurant near our hotel.

We didn’t have anything scheduled for the afternoon.  I did a workout at the hotel, and we went to a brewery in search of interesting beers.  Then we relaxed at the hotel until it was time for dinner.

Marathon Tours hosted a pasta dinner for all their runners at the Ritz Carlton, which was a block away from our hotel.  After dinner, we relaxed, got organized for the marathon, and went to bed early.

I slept well for a few hours.  After that, I slept off and on.

Sunday, September 29

Sunday was race day.  Our hotel started their breakfast service earlier than usual, so I had time to eat breakfast before getting ready for the race.

The start area was in Tiergarten.  We needed to enter the park through a security checkpoint near the northeast corner of the park.  From my hotel, I needed to walk almost a mile to get to the entrance.

There were 10 start groups, divided into four waves.  The first four groups were in the first wave, which started at 9:15.  I was in group E, which was the fifth group.  That put me in the second wave, which didn’t start until 9:45.

When I registered for the race, I had the option of paying an extra five euros to be able to check a gear bags.  Not knowing what the weather would be like, I paid the extra five euros to keep my options open.  It was a chilly enough morning that I decided to wear my cheetah gear again.  I also wore extra layers as I walked to the start.

From our hotel, it was a 15-minute walk to the entrance to the start area.  The race organizers recommended arriving at least an hour before the start time for your wave.  We had to go through a security checkpoint, and I didn’t know how long that would take.  I left the hotel at 8:15 to give myself plenty of time to get through the checkpoint, wait in the bathroom lines, and check my gear bag before lining up for the start.

Although my wave didn’t start until 9:45, I knew they would start moving people forward as soon as the runners in front got started.  For that reason, I made a point of getting to my corral before 9:15.  By 9:35, we were all the way up to the starting line.  That gave me 10 minutes to duck out of the corral and make a final bathroom stop.

When I checked my gear back, I kept my Tyvek jacket with me.  I also had the heat sheet that I received after the 5K race.  After my final bathroom stop, I discard the heat sheet, and I tied my jacket around my waist.

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to run a Boston qualifying time.  For my age group, the qualifying standard is 3:50.  That’s an average pace of 8:46 per mile.  The course is marked in kilometers, but my watch is configured to give me my time for each mile.

They had pace groups, but there wasn’t a 3:50 group.  There were three 3:45 groups.  One was in my wave, but not in my corral.  The other two were in later waves.  I assumed if I was on pace for 3:50 that the 3:45 group in corral F would catch up to me by the end of the race.

I started at a pace that didn’t feel quite as fast as the pace that I started the 5K race.  My pace for the first mile was 8:27.  That’s still faster than my goal pace of 8:46, but it felt more reasonable.  After that, I tried to gradually ease up until I found the right pace.

My cheetah outfit made it easy for friends to spot me.  During the first mile, my friend Glen saw me.  We ran together for almost half of the race.

We started out running west through Tiergarten.  After getting out of the park, we eventually turned to our right.  After that, we gradually circled back until we were heading east.

Shortly after that first turn, I got warm enough that I was ready to take off my gloves.  By the time we had gone five kilometers, I could feel the sun, and I warmed up quickly.  The hat I was wearing is fairly warm, and I could already feel sweat under my hat.  I wondered if I was going to regret wearing such warm clothes.  As it turns out, I felt hotter at 5K than I would later in the race.

Although I was trying to slow down, my pace for miles two through five bounced between the 8:20s and 8:30s.  It wasn’t until mile six that I slowed to 8:40.  By then, we had run past the Reichstag, and we continued into the east side of Berlin.

I wasn’t as hot now.  We occasionally felt a nice cool breeze.  That went a long way toward keeping me from getting too hot.

There were 15 aid stations on the course.  Six of them had water, sports drink, tea, and bananas.  The others just had water.  I was planning to drink the sports drink whenever it was available.  At 9K, I headed for the last set of tables.  A sign indicated that these were the tables for the sports drink, but a volunteer said, “wasser.”  Thinking this was another water table, I went past it.  I ended up eating a banana instead of drinking at that aid station.  The volunteers were peeling the bananas before handing them to us, which made it easy to eat them quickly.

At another aid station, I accidentally drank the tea instead of the sports drink.  I only ended up drinking the sports drink four times.

Glen sometimes fell behind me at aid stations, but he quickly caught up with me.  After one of the aid stations, it took longer to catch up.  When he caught up to me, he said I sped up.  I didn’t realize I was going faster, but I sped up to 8:16 in that mile.  After that, I eased up.  The next mile was 8:49.  That was the first mile that was slower than my goal pace, but overall we were well ahead of pace.

Other than the Reichstag and the tall antenna tower in East Berlin, I wasn’t paying any attention to landmarks.  I was focused on my pace, my effort, talking to Glen, and not bumping into people.

Starting with mile eight, we were keeping our pace in the 8:40s.  I had hoped that as we got farther into the race, there would be less variation in the pace of the people around us.  Instead, there was more variation.  We were catching up to the slowest runners from wave one, and the fastest runners from wave three were catching up to us.  I like to stay on a consistent pace by keeping up with the runners around me.  To do that, I had to gauge which runners were going at the same pace.

At about 20K, I took longer at an aid station.  I had to slow almost to a stop to get to the tables without bumping into people.  Then it was hard to resume running at my previous pace, because runners who were still drinking were going slow.  When I had room, I put extra effort into getting back to the same pace.  I overcompensated and sped up to 8:38 in that mile.

After that, Glen never caught up to me.  He may have taken longer at that aid station, or I may have sped up too much for Glen to catch me.  After that, I was on my own.

Often, I'll see spectators holding up amusing signs.  The best sign I saw during this race was on the back of a runner.  It read, "I'm just doing this to find a boyfriend."  Her shirt also had a large QR code, presumably to contact her.

I reached the halfway mark in 1:53:45.  I was 1:45 ahead of schedule.  I still felt OK, and I had room to slow down a little in the second half.  At this point, I was feeling pretty confident that I would break 3:50.

I had a couple more miles in the 8:40s.  Then I sped up to 8:31.  That was another mile where I was working a little harder to compensate for taking extra time at an aid station.  Once again, I overcompensated.

There was an aid station at 27.5K that had gels.  I don’t usually eat gels during a race, but I didn’t think I was taking in enough calories, so I took one.

At 28K, I was two thirds done.  I remember reaching this same point in 2016 and asking myself how I felt.  I felt better at 28K this year than I did in 2016, but I didn’t feel as fresh as I did at 14K.

Most of the time, I was passing the slow runners, keeping up with some of the faster runners, but getting passed by the fastest runners.  In mile 19, I seemed to be passing almost everyone.  When I got the next split from my watch, I saw that I sped up to 8:22.  That was my second fastest mile so far.  I had already gained another minute since the halfway mark.  If I could keep that up, I would run negative splits.  With that in mind, and with only 7.2 miles to go, I put more effort into my pace.

Over the next five miles, I kept logging mile splits between 8:20 and 8:24.  Each one made me even more determines to keep up the faster pace.

By now, I was noticing much more wind.  My hands were starting to get cold.  I no longer had any concern about getting hot.

At about 38.5K, I reached Potsdamer Platz.  This is where the 5K race started, so the rest of the race was going to be familiar.  I just needed to repeat a subset of what I did on Saturday.  Interestingly enough, the previous six miles were all faster than my average pace in the 5K race, which I thought was too fast for a marathon.

Eight years ago, a friend caught up to me at this same point in the race.  I was beginning to struggle, so I couldn’t keep up with him.  This year, I felt good, and I was determined to finish strong.

The hardest part was the long stretch before the next turn.  That was almost a mile.  At one point, I thought I saw the runners ahead of me turning, but it was only a place where the street shifted slightly to the left.  I should’ve remembered that from the 5K race.

When we finally did turn, I saw the 40K sign.  There was an aid station, but I skipped it.  I ran mile 25 in 8:06, and I didn’t want to stop or slow down for anything.

After that turn, there were five more.  They’re all fairly close together.  Each time I made a turn, I could see the next one.  I was trying hard to see if I could run mile 26 as fast as I ran mile 25.

When I made the last turn, I could see the Brandenburg Gate.  Before I got there, I got my split for mile 26.  I was so disappointed that it wasn’t as fast as mile 25, that I momentarily lost some of my incentive to run hard to the finish.

After running through the gate, I could see the finish line.  Then I ran hard again, but it was too late.  I finished in 3:45:01.  That’s almost five minutes faster than my original goal, but I was disappointed that I didn’t break 3:45.  Had I known it would be that close, I would have fought harder to shave off a couple seconds.  I was pretty happy though, to have run negative splits by more than two minutes.

Almost immediately after crossing the finish line, I got cold.  I was glad I had my jacket.  I untied it and put it on before continuing through the finish area.

The finisher medals had designs on both sides.  One side depicts Berlin landmarks.  The other side denotes this being the 50th Berlin Marathon.


Our route out of the finish area was the same as the route after the finish of the 5K race, but I had to make a slight detour to retrieve my gear bag.  On the way there, I was handed a bag with post-race snacks.  It included a bag of chocolate kisses, a candy bar, a chocolate filled croissant, pretzels, an apple, a banana, and vitamin water.  I ate half of those snacks while walking back to the hotel.

I walked back to the hotel the same way I walked back after the 5K race, but it was slower this time.  The sidewalks were congested with slow-moving runners and spectators.  It was worse when I got into the U-Bahn station to go under the street.  The hallway was jammed with hundreds of runners going one direction and hundreds of spectators going the other direction.  Everyone wanted to cross under the street.

It seemed to take forever to get out of the station.  Then I had to move through more thick crowds before getting back around the Brandenburg Gate and out to the street.

By the time I got back to the hotel, I was cold, even with my jacket.  I took a long hot shower to warm up.  Then I ate the rest of my snacks and started tracking Tom’s progress.  Tom was in the last start group, so he started almost an hour after I did.

After Tom got back and had time to shower, we went to a post-race party hosted by Marathon Tours.  We got there late, so we were there until the end.

I mentioned earlier that I had two reasons for doing this race again.  The first reason was getting a BQ in every major.  The second reason was Oktoberfest.  Oktoberfest started on September 21, and it runs through October 6.  Being in Germany at this time gave me an opportunity to travel to Munich for Oktoberfest without having to make an extra trip.

Tomorrow morning, Tom and I will take a train to Munich.  I’ll post an Oktoberfest report in a few days.


Race statistics:
Distance:  42.2 kilometers
Time:  3:45:01
Average Pace:  8:35 per mile (5:20 per kilometer)
First Half:  1:53:45
Second Half:  1:51:16
Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  528
Boston Qualifiers:  169
World Marathon Majors:  26 (13 Boston, 5 Chicago, 4 New York, 2 Berlin, 1 London, 1 Tokyo)


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