Berlin

And just like that, the Berlin Marathon is over.

After our visit to Amsterdam, Lindy and I took a train to Berlin. The train was pretty uneventful, except for the fact we played musical chairs for a good part of our trip since we didn't have seat reservations. Once we figured out the method to the madness, it was a little too late. Now we know.

We arrived at the shiny Central Station and headed out to Charlottenburg, where our Airbnb was. The couple showed us around their nice top floor apartment. Fortunately it wasn't a walk-up. Going down all those stairs after the marathon would not have been pleasant.

Once we finished settling in, we headed to the expo. I knew the expo had to be pretty decent since Berlin is one of the Majors, but it's Europe so I wasn't entirely positive it would be smooth. But then again, we are in Germany. We got our bibs and bags in no time. Yay for German efficiency. We wandered around the expo to do a little bit of shopping. Lindy was in the market for a watch, and I was looking for my marathon souvenir. Which is usually a running jacket or sweater. We were successful and found both.

My next major marathon.

We will Berlin.

We wanted to start to rest up, so we got some pasta and called it an early night. The following day would bring Lindy's friend Kaj from NYC, and his friend Philip from Munich. Then it would be time to focus and get into marathon mode.

     
The next day, Kaj and Philip both arrived, and since they needed to go to the expo, Lindy and I did a little bit of sightseeing. The good thing about this being my 3rd visit to Berlin, is that I didn't feel the need to see everything. We stuck close to the Reichstag, and walked around a bit in that neighborhood. We saw the Brandenburg Tor, which we would run through the following day, the Holocaust Memorial, and some of the Berlin wall. After a couple of hours, we wanted to sit down desperately. We headed back to Charlottenburg to rest up and carb up.

Brandenburg Tor.

Holocaust Memorial.

Berlin wall.

Leading up to the Berlin, as usual, I stalked the weather forecast. Since I packed over a week before the race, I prepared for a colder morning. But as the race approached, the weather turned warmer. I had in my calendar that it was an 8am start. It was actually a 9:15 start. That meant I wouldn't be finishing until around 1pm. No good if it was going to be warm. The latest forecast said 50s at the start, and high 60s/low 70s at the finish. Not ideal. Hopefully my summer training hasn't gone away and it will all work out.

Since it was a late race start, we all got a good night's sleep. I woke up, ate some food, and got dressed. We headed to the S-bahn and 15 minutes later, we were walking to the start village with about 40,000 other runners. Lindy and I were in the same start corral, while Kaj was one ahead of us, and Philip was behind us. We found Kaj's bag drop, and then Philip's. But couldn't find ours. We said good luck to Phillip and parted ways. We wandered around until we finally found our tent to drop off our bags. A little later than I would have liked. The map wasn't super clear on where we needed to go. Once that was done, it was time for the porta potty. At this point Kaj left us. Of course the line was too long. So we risked it and continued on our way in hopes to find another. And we did. We finally stopped right before we entered our race corral. And boy was that the most inconvenient spot to put a porta potty. We had to maintain some sort of order in line, but also let the racers through since that was the only path to the start. I was trying to hold my anxiety in. This would be my first suggestion to the race organizer.  We finally took care of our business and made our way to the start. 

Pre-race.

Then we were running. We had to wait for a few minutes to get into our corral, but soon we were off. I spotted my second NBR runner, and worked to get into my pace mode. As with my last marathon, I needed to figure out my kilometer pace. I haven't decided whether I Iike races in miles or kilometers. In a marathon, kilometers do go by so fast, but there's 42 of them, instead of 26. Since I'm in Europe, I'm happy to run in kilometers for now.

So what was my goal pace? Based on my race history, a 3:15 marathon isn't out of the realm of possibility. Based on the last few months, 3:16 is probably more realistic. But you know, this is a marathon. Anything could happen. If I get a PR (breaking 3:19:55) I'll be very happy. If I get close to 3:15, I would be thrilled. So my plan was to aim for 3:20 for the first half, which would be a little conservative, but oh well. I have to start somewhere. I would then see what I could do for the 2nd half. This would mean starting with 4:45 kilometers (7:38 miles) and then speeding it up.

I had Lindy in sight for the first 5k, but then lost her at the first water stop. I assumed she was behind me since her goal was slightly behind mine. I just went on and ticked off the kilometers. Some were on target, some were not. Either they were a little fast or a little slow. The race was fairly crowded, so I put partial blame on that. I couldn't really get into a groove before I ran into someone again and had to pass them. I was hoping it would lighten up earlier in the race, but it didn't. It was consistently crowded the entire time. Eventually though, I think I was in a good place and wasn't encountering as many people. I feel good when I pass people, but I know I'm adding up my mileage, a tiny bit at a time. Adjusting the starting corrals would be my second suggestion. 

At the half marathon point, my time was 1:39:58. Right on 3:20 pace. But it was time to speed it up. I carried on, and at one point, Kaj found me. We did a quick check and separated. I was feeling pretty strong and wanted to see how long I could keep my pace up for. I was still hoping for a time close to 3:16, even though it would be challenging.

Somewhere in the 2nd half of the race, I picked up a running buddy. I found out later he's French, but we didn't talk at all while we were running. I didn't want to chat anyway. Fortunately he wasn't one of those annoying guy runners who can't stand having a girl pass him and then try to stay with me when he clearly can't. One of the things I noticed about this race in particular is the number of men running. Since it's European, I assume not as many women run like back home. And since I'm fast, I was hanging out with all the guys. I was happy when I spotted a fellow female though. I cheered for her on in my head. 

Back to the French guy. Like I said, fortunately he wasn't annoying. He actually helped me out at one point with water. We pretty much just ran side by side for most of the remainder of the race. He wasn't there the entire time, but when he wasn't, he'd reappear shortly thereafter. Soon I only had a few kilometers left. At this point, I was fully aware that I was running a marathon and was ready to wrap it up. My pace was slowing a bit, even though I tried to maintain my goal pace. At about the 40k mark, I couldn't go any faster. The French guy waved me on to encourage me to stay with him. But I couldn't. I figured at that point, if I can get a 5 minute pace for those last 2 kilometers, I would still PR. So I just needed to maintain. And keep counting to 100 in my head. 

Finally the Brandenburg Tor was in sight. I knew the finish was right on the other side. Although I do think the finish should be right at the gate. But that's another discussion. I finally crossed the finish in a time of 3:18:47. Not the 3:16 I was hoping for. But hey, over a minute off my PR. My tired legs and I will take it. 

I got some water, collected my stuff, grabbed a nonalcoholic beer, and headed to the Reichstag to wait for my friends. Fortunately it was nice weather, so I didn't mind stretching in the sun. And I'm glad the heat didn't bother me during the race. It took a while and some miscommunication but Lindy, Kaj, Philip, and I were reunited as finishers. We had some PRs and a first timer thrown in for good measure.

#11 finish.

Finishers.

We went to find alcoholic beer and rest our legs. 

Post-race beer.

Then we showered, and replenished our lost calories with German meat and beer.

Prost!

The following day, Lindy, Kaj, and I limped around around and did a little sightseeing. This involved more beer of course. We did a nice tasting at Brauhaus Lemke. And then took a nice walk around the Charlottenburg Schloss grounds. 

More bier.

I'm so glad I decided to go to Berlin. It was a nice relaxing weekend with a marathon thrown in for fun. I made some new friends, and got a PR in the process. Maybe we will run London or Tokyo together. I'm very pleased with my performance and was glad there was no rain. I think I still have room for improvement but I will hold off on that until the next marathon. Which could be Boston 2018. We shall see.