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.
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