September 16, 2018 I ran the
freaking Berlin Marathon! It was my 7th marathon and 3rd
World Major Marathon. It was quite the experience! So much on an experience it’s
taken me a month and a half to finally get this post live. I plan to blog about my time in Germany as
well as how I planned for this trip, but let’s just focus on the race for this
recap.
Planning
for the Berlin Marathon
Like many large marathons these
days, the Berlin Marathon uses a lottery system. Check out their registration
page for information on registering (Registration for the 2019 race ends 11/7/2018)! The entry fee this year
was 125€-this does not include a race shirt (you can pre-order one when you
register). The race also has you choose between a post-race poncho and being
able to drop a bag of clothes off for after the race, which is unlike other
races I have run.
I talked a little bit about my
training in recaps one
and two-I
never got to my final training recap before flying out to Berlin (whoops!).
Travel-wise I booked roundtrip
flights to Munich. We left Thursday from Baltimore, arrived in Munich
technically Friday morning, and caught a small flight from Munich to Berlin
later that morning. It was a bit exhausting not flying straight into Berlin.
I’d also probably give myself an extra day or two to get acclimated to the time
change before an overseas race. I wanted things to be relaxing so I booked a
hotel in the Mitte neighborhood, right near the Alexanderplatz and a train
station.
2018 Berlin Marathon Expo
The race has over 40,000 runners, and
I heard the expo was very crowded Saturday, the day before the race. After
checking into our hotel and grabbing a bite to eat I headed over to the expo at
the old Berlin Tempelhof Airport (the place is huge and has lots of history-one
of the 3 iconic European pre-World War II airports!). We got there with just
over an hour to spare. The expo was really crowded and took a bit of time.
The
expo included time outside of the airport as well as two full airport HANGARS
before getting to the actual bib pickup in the back. First I showed my bib
confirmation and then ID, then received a participant bracelet I needed to get
into the expo and race corral. The official gear was by Adidas, and if you have
ever raced a World Marathon Major or
huge marathon you know it gets crazy crowded plus some things sell out. I picked up my pre-ordered race shirt, and I
also bought a race t-shirt (youth sizes for the win!) and hat.
There was the 6k Generali Breakfast Run the
day before the race that thousands of people participated in. I instead went to
a November Project shakeout run. It was fun to meet people from some different
tribes as well as see a few friends and of course get a sweet spray-painted tag on my shirt.
Later in the day I spent way too much time on my feet walking around and doing some sight-seeing. I even spotted some of the Berlin Marathon Inline Skating race which is so unusual. I had pizza the night before the race and an alcohol-free beer. It happened to be a Neapolitan Italian pizza place that was some of the best pizza I've ever had.
Race Day
The Berlin Marathon begins later
in the morning, just like the Boston Marathon. Wave 1 began at 9:15 AM, but
maybe because I was jetlagged it didn’t feel very late in the day. I left
myself plenty of time to navigate the pre-race area, but ended up having LOTS
of time before the race. I hopped a train from right by my hotel and then
walked right over to the starting area by the Reichstag Building. Bag check
around 7:45 AM was very quick to get through. There was a giant field where I
hung out.
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| Race photographer caught me checking out social media |
I even found a little port-a-potty
with like ONLY 3 people in line as I was walking over to ask someone which way
the start corrals were (MARATHON RACE DAY MAGIC!). The race area was near the
Tiergarten which is like the Central Park of Berlin. It was easy to follow all
the signs to bathrooms and the race corrals. I was in the last corral of the
first wave.
I spent a lot of time just waiting
around in the corral. I ended up meeting a woman from the Boston area and
another from New York, both who recognized my November Project tagged tank top!
It was truly amazing to be in such an international race surrounded by runners
from all different countries, hearing so many different languages around me in
the corral.
They had a big jumbo screen playing videos with runners speaking
about the race in different languages and then played some Shakira song that everybody
but me knew. It was also really cool because we could see on the screen when
the hand cyclers and elites started.
I had planned to fuel with a
mixture of Honey Stinger Ginsting gels, Huma Gels, a couple GU gels and
carrying Nuun Hydration in a handheld bottle because the on-course nutrition was
different from standard Gatorade such as in most big U.S. marathons. The race actually offers the option for us non-elite runners to have bottles of fluid on tables (just like the professional elite runners). There actually wasn't that many bottles on the tables so I probably should have done that! They had
iced and hot tea on course which was unique. I had a few cups of the iced tea
which was yummy and okay on my stomach. There were also some different sport
gels and these things called gel chips that were cola flavored-I had one on my
race bag from the expo. It tasted like a cola marshmallow. The electrolyte
drink was Beetster which yup, is beetroot plus other extracts like lemon. I
love beets and drink beet juice before races, but didn’t want to mess with it
during the race.
There was a big balloon release at the start of the marathon which was so fun!
Miles
1-6:
The first few miles of a marathon are always exciting. I told myself to settle
in and try to not get caught up in all of the runners around me. It was awesome
trying to soak it all in. I kept reminding myself that I’m in Germany running
the Berlin FREAKING marathon right now! Very quickly I found out the water
stops were a mess due to plastic cups (see my overall recap bullet points at
the end of the post) so it was hard because I usually follow the
squeeze-the-cup drinking method during races.
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| Mid-run selfie right after the start |
Miles
7-12:
Around mile 6 or 7 I found the 3:30 pace group come from behind me and decided
to stick with them. With pace groups sometimes I get anxious because there’s a
lot of people clustered around them, especially in a big race like this one. I
was looking out for my boyfriend around Mile 8 because that’s when we planned
he would be able to see me since we weren’t sure how he’d get around the
course. I didn’t see him which was honestly a bummer because I thought it was
the only time I’d see a familiar spectator face on the course. I was still feeling pretty happy and good during these miles.
I didn’t feel as
comfortable as I wanted by the halfway mark, but I tried to just focus on
sticking with the group and not looking at my watch. There was plenty of sights to take in and lots of beautiful scenery running around Berlin to distract me from the mileage left to go.
Miles
13-18:
At this point I was trying to tell myself that I was feeling strong and all was
well. Yes, I spent a lot of time during marathons playing mind games with myself! I was running pretty consistent splits which is something I apparently do
well during big races (according to my boyfriend who was tracking me and trying
to find me). I was trying not to look at my watch really (which I had in miles
so no worries about kilometers throwing me off!). I was sticking with the 3:30
pace group and really focusing on just staying with them. There were a few
times from 16-18 that I got ahead of them which felt good. I had moments of
getting anxious that the group got ahead of me when I slowed down or stopped at
water stops plus I like being more near the front of pace groups to avoid the
feeling that I’m chasing rather than running with the group. With the later
start date plus the warmer-than-usual temperatures in Germany for the race (and
my whole trip) I was feeling warmer than I liked. The high for the day ended up
being 74 degrees so it was definitely in the 60s by 11 AM- noon.
Miles
19-finish:
I was not feeling hot for most of these miles. It was probably a combination of
the jetlag, it getting warmer out, plus just being at the end of the marathon.
My legs were feeling tight, and the pace wasn’t feeling easy. I walked through
the water stops and stopped to stretch my calves out at Mile 23. Despite
feeling crappy, my pace wasn’t super slowed down. I looked at my watch and saw
I could still make it under 3:35, which was my goal for the race so I asked myself
“how badly do you want it? Do you want a BQ because you can get it girl”. I
decided at Mile 23 I wanted it, and I pushed it to the end.
From Mile 21 to the
end I focused on just hitting the next mile marker (via my watch, because
kilometer markers were obviously more frequent). It was so VERY exciting to run
through the famous Brandenburg Gate. I knew that the race finish was past the
gate so that last 0.2 ish miles was definitely in the pain cave. I started
crying once I was running through the Brandenburg Gate because I was so happy
and grateful to be running my 7th marathon and be in Germany.
Crossed the finish line in 3:31: 27. It was my second fastest marathon. I was hoping to have a bigger kick the last 10K to get sub-3:30, but I'm still really happy and proud of this race. I'm happy that I mentally fought through and made the decision to keep pushing when the going got tough.
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| Smile and stop the Garmin! |
Post-race
Once I finished I had my
obligatory my-legs-are-on-fire-I-feel-nauseous crouch down followed by the
usual volunteer telling me to “keep moving along”. I got a water and my bag of
snacks (ALL BIG RACES should bag snacks so I don’t have to carry everything!). Since
I had opted for the poncho instead of dropping clothes off, I got my nice thick
Berlin poncho.
Despite being freaking Germany, land of beer, there is
alcohol-free beer for runners at the finish line. I partook in it because
German alcohol-free beer isn’t actually so bad, plus electrolytes and all the
good recovery things minus the alcohol. Don’t worry, a real deal alcohol-filled
beer was in my future.
My boyfriend and I had gotten
German SIM cards for our phones so we were able to call/text to meet up
together by the Reichstag building. My last text message to him actually didn’t
go through because there were so many people using cell phones! When I found my
boyfriend he was helping a runner from Italy use his phone to call who he was
supposed to meet up with-see so much fun international runner love!
Once I
found out Kipchoge set the world marathon record today, it was SO MUCH COOLER
that his face was on the back of the medal!
I slowly walked back to our hotel
to shower and change before having beers and schnitzel. I spent the evening
outdoors at a Berlin beer garden with some of my new November Project friends,
a.k.a. the perfect post-Berlin Marathon evening.
THE
GOOD:
-The race is huge with over 40,000
and energetic. There are always other runners and spectators around!
-The race is super international
with people all over the world running it. It made for a beautiful running
community and experience.
-The course is flat and fast-no
wonder many world marathon records including the latest this year by Kipchoge
(2:01:39) were set in Berlin!
-The races photos looked awesome!
I ended up buying all of them because Sportograf, the photography company
offered a deal for downloads of all race photos for only 29.99€! Pretty good
deal, especially for a race I may only ever run once.
THE
BAD:
-Oh the plastic cups. The water
stops at the Berlin Marathon were horrendous. They were very crowded and
bottlenecked but also the race uses plastic cups so the ground was covered with
them at the water stops. There was the crunching under my feet and it also made
a slippery hazard. I ended up walking a few steps to drink through them.
-On course nutrition. Not the usual
Gatorade and water from US races, which I know I can handle. It hard to have to
carry enough of what you train with/use, especially depending on the weather
and where you are travelling from.
-It’s a big race. This is
partially a good thing but can also be a bad thing. You are surrounded by
runners the whole time which can feel crowded, especially if you are used to
smaller races.
That’s my big ol’ Berlin Marathon
race recap. 3/6 World Marathon Majors completed! After a lot of back to back marathon training cycles, I'm ready for the off-season from running and some new goals.
Have you ever run an international race? Have you ever run the
Berlin Marathon?
As always follow along on Instagram @breathedeeplyandsmile
to see what I’m doing in the off-season!
