the berlin marathon

And it's done!!!


(And yes, that red spot is what you think it is...)

The Berlin Marathon was awesome. 

The morning started early - woke up at 5:30 to get ready, drink water and coffee, eat bananas, to get down to the start area just after 7:30. I walked the mile to the start area. I didn't feel like dealing with public transit in case they were really strict about arriving to the start area at 7:30 (they were not). 


Pre-marathon fuel. Worked out well again!


Before the blood, sweat, and almost tears. Almost.


Our BMW timing chips! Classy shoes, right?


FitBit didn't know what I had up my sleeve this morning. I also think this person didn't realize I was running a marathon this weekend..they invited me to their "Weekend Warrior" challenge.

The weather was... not ideal, lol. It was foggy, drizzly, and humid (100% humidity). I honestly did not feel the humidity as it was like 53-55 degrees.. guess I learned temperature is a huge factor with me moreso than humidity. 


Moody Reichstag.

The pre-race situation with bathrooms and overall organization of the starting area was actually better than I expected considering there was 39,000 of us running... getting to my corral was a little tough but that was more of my fault.

The start was epic - they played awesome pump up music, got the crowd to do some "Victory clap" and off we went. It was quite the moment to get started - all of the feelings! 


Looking ahead..


And looking back. (One wave of runners had already started by this point..)

In general, the course was of course, wet, with plenty of puddles, and yes there were generally a ton of people around you the entire 26.2 miles.  Personally, I treated these variables like I was trail running.. just gotta work with it. Nothing you can do besides be aggressive, however I was not PUSHING people or grabbing people around the waist (the latter actually happened to me..very weird). I was more of the delicate weaver but trying to stay focused on the blue tangent line so I wouldn't overrun this one like I did with Milan (spoiler alert: I still overran it).

I was feeling very, very good during the first half, I had to actively work on slowing down to keep my pace around the goal of 8:20/pace - which I did fairly well.. Around mile 8, a ghost of my right ankle tendinitis came to light and I was like, yeah pretty sure you aren't real. So focused on breathing and other things... and the pain went away. Not joking. That was a huge mental help once I realized it was all in my head.  

The crowd support was incredible by the way. There were people along the entire 26.2 mile course with huge crowds near the end, and especially under overpasses so their cheering would be even louder, which was awesome. There were also at least 10-15 bands along the course - from techno, to jazz, and then to plenty of drum bands which really helped a ton! I also saw karate. I am not kidding.

The fun began around mile 17.5 for me... it was like my body ran out of fuel (though I had another gel at mile 20.5 or so). Still not sure if this was because I just didn't eat enough in the days leading up to race and/or walked too much the days prior..(56k steps in 3 days, 16k the day prior..). It was at this point I figured I couldn't BQ... 


You can see that slow down between 17-18...

 I got over that fact pretty quick. So, with Milan, it was fairly humid for that so I stopped at every aid station there to get water and electrolyte drink...but Berlin.. I would start to get faint stomach cramps after some extra water stops so I actually skipped quite a few. (Probably walked/stopped at less than half of the aid stations). I was VERY close to stopping to get tea though at some the last aid stations, but knowing I was very close to hitting my sub-3:40 goal, I chugged along.


Rocking that chafing stain like a BA. Had no idea until I finished, lol.


There was probably a band right here so that's why I was smiling.

The last 6.2mi were tough for sure but literally just had to keep mentally repeating to myself to keep my pace below 9:00 for the last 10k and I could hit my goal. And this was very hard to do... 


But I did it!

(Reflecting on this now though... I think a lot of this end of race slowdown can be fixed with some mental training adjustments...)

My face when I could see through the Gate and spot the finish!

Once I hit the Brandenburg Gate, I was around 3:38 (by this time, I had ran 26.2+ mi according to my Garmin), and the finish was like 0.2mi away so I booked it. I thought I would get emotional at the end but when you're booking it you don't have time to get teary lol.


Then cranking it up.


Realizing I could do it!

Overall, I finished with a 3:39:33 - a 10 minute PR! I was and am very happy with this!


Post-finish selfie. In my post-finish selfie for Milan, a guy behind me had embarrassing stains on his shirt, this time..that was me :P


And done!

 
Why isn't anyone else smiling? lol

After the finish...I walked along to get my poncho, and then the soreness hit, oh my goodness. I hobbled over to the water and electrolyte stations.. then got the photo op... all of this at a snail pace. I did not feel this way after Milan and I believe that is because I was just so filled with adrenaline from finishing my first marathon.. and believe me I had adrenaline after this one but uh my muscles wanted to let me know how they felt. 


Exchanged phones with a fellow finisher for our victory pictures. We were in equal amounts of pain.

From there I hobbled over to the Brandenburg Gate to see folks finish...then realized I still had to return the timing chip on my shoe. Basically my worst nightmare, lol. I had to walk back over to the finishing area to return it, and then rewarded myself with the largest pretzel I have ever eaten. I walked my poncho-wrapped pretzel-eating self back to the AirBNB and then relaxed for a few hours.



Then I met up with Oiselle teammates later that evening who also ran and we enjoyed Berlin's Oktoberfest!








I don't eat meat usually but when I do, it's in Europe. Currywurst is a thing in Berlin...

In conclusion, awesome race!!! I wish the weather would have been a bit better but there's only so much you can control! I would love to do it again despite the crowds! I highly recommend this race to anyone - Berlin is an incredibly easy city to get around, mostly everyone speaks English, and the city itself has so much to offer!