Berlin marathon 2013 race report.
Urgh.... still time to back out!
Training for the 2013 Berlin Marathon started in the week after Copenhagen Marathon, in May 2013. I paid the price of not resting after Copenhagen by pulling my Achilles tendon almost immediately. This injury plagued the rest of my training until September. From May till the end of July, I supplemented limited running with cycling and walking. Throughout most of August and September I was able to increase my mileage, running a few training runs in excess of 20 km with two of these at 30 km. In all, I cycled considerably more then in the training leading up to Copenhagen while running somewhat fewer kilometers.
Running (top) and cycling stats 2013
My Achilles injuries also meant that speed training was out of the question, and I changed my goal to completing the Berlin Marathon in four hours and 30 minutes.
Friday, 27 September, at 5:30 AM:
Frederik - now with new drivers license! - drove me to Holstebro train station. I caught the train from Holstebro via Fredericia to Berlin, arriving in Berlin at about 2:30 in the afternoon. After spending about half an hour in the Berlin train station trying to figure out how to get to Templehof Airport I finally got to the check-in at about 4 o'clock, where I met up with Peter. We picked up our race numbers and spent half an hour looking at the exhibition - where I got my Achilles taped up with pink sports tape - before heading out to our hotel near Alexanderplatz.
Queue...
Almost there...
Taped up for Sunday...
We met up with Peter's family and went out to dinner together where we started our carb loading with a plate of sushi and another of noodles.
Saturday, 28 September:
Today was spent relaxing and carb loading, first with a few hours in the Natural History Museum where I saw the famous Archaeopteryx fossil, and later with a pasta lunch at Alexanderplatz.
Archaeopteryx!
Saturday evening Peter and I went for a 3 km run in the park to loosen up and test our equipment. Finally, we ended the day with a pasta dinner at the local Italian restaurant. Early to bed by 10 PM.
Sunday morning, 29 September:
Breakfast room at 6 AM. Breakfast consisted of a double portion of Muesli, and plenty of coffee. This was supplemented with three shots of beetroot juice, and two energy bars. We left the hotel at 6:30, walking to Alexanderplatz, where we took the U-Bahn to Friedrichsstrasse, near the Reichstag. Another 20 minutes walk brought us to the starting area where we were among the first to arrive. We deposited our clothing bags, and used the toilets, after waiting in line for about 50 minutes.
Start line!
Reichstag.
4 degrees and waiting in the toilet queue...
We should be starting round about now!
Feeling the effects of coffee...
... but not as much as this guy!
And...we're off!
0-10km:
Starting as we did at the back of block H, there were about 38,000 other runners in front of us. Before the end of the day we would pass more than 12,000 of these runners, weaving and ducking our way through the masses. This cost us at least an extra kilometer of running, and about 10 minutes on our total time. Note to self: move up to the front of the starting blocks for your next big city marathon!
Within a few minutes we passed the Victory Column, commemorating the Austrian - Prussian defeat of Denmark in 1864. Suitably chastened, we try to pick up our speed from 6:30 to our goal pace of 6 minutes per kilometer. Running conditions were perfect: the sky was cloudless, temperatures at about 10 degrees rising to about 14 degrees later in the day. Only later in the race would experience some wind, although this was for such a short period that it was not a problem.
Our strategy was to run together for at least the beginning of the rice. Peter had been running consistently faster in training then I had, so we agreed that he should move on at his own pace if he found the going too slow. Our strategy was to run a pace of about 6:30 per kilometer for the first 10 km, accelerating to 6:15 per kilometer for the next 20 km and then to see if we could increase of pace for the remainder of the race.
Almost immediately we found ourselves battling to maintain our pace. For the first 10 km we spent a lot of energy ducking and weaving around slower runners before finding a group of Dutch runners who were maintaining a pace of about 6:05 per kilometer. Fortunately we were able to run with them for much of the race.
The first water point was at 5 km which we passed as we were carrying Camel Baks. Carrying our own water was a huge advantage as all of the water stops were pure chaos. Many of the water points also had gels, which meant that the roads became increasingly sticky as we progressed into the race. At 7 km we passed the Reichstag, although the sheer mass of runners and spectators was so huge, and the task of weaving around other runners was so demanding that I had no idea where we were, or what we were running past.
By 10 km we were running at 6:05 per kilometer and had found our rythm. At this stage we were approaching Alexanderplatz and ran within a few hundred metres of our hotel.
Iphone and Pebble Smartwatch
10-30km:
At 12 km we crossed the river Spree for about the sixth time and began moving towards the suburb of Kreuzberg and the 15 km refreshment station. The half marathon point at 21.2 km in Schoeneberg was reached after two hours and 13 minutes, precisely on time to maintain our target. From this point we need to increase our pace to her about six minutes per kilometer. The crowds here were very big, and we began to appreciate the steel drum rhythms being played at regular intervals. This helped us maintain our pace.
At about 23 km I lost Peter at a water point and at the same time we lost our Dutch pacers. I decided to accelerate and see if I could catch up with the Dutch group again. A few kilometers later I caught up with the Dutch runners, and shortly afterwards Peter caught up with me again. This was something of a miracle considering the sheer numbers of runners on the road!
At 24 km we passed the Schoeneberg Rathaus, where president Kennedy held his historic "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. At this stage I honestly had no idea where we were, and was concentrating on maintaining my pace.
30-37km:
From 30 km I began to feel the first signs of fatigue, and we began the long haul to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church. With 35 km behind us we reached the Kurfuerstendam and I began to feel we might get to the end. By now it was just a question of survival. I found myself again in that 'dark place' - where the thought of crossing the finishing line was the only thing I was able to concentrate on. I knew that if I stopped running now I would not make it, so I forced myself to keep going and from 37 km my reserves had been used and my pace began to decline.
37-42.2km:
The last 4 km along Leipziger Strasse, past the Konzerthaus building: towards Unter den Linden were painful, music and shouts of encouragement from the crowds kept me going. Finally, I could see the Brandenburg gates in the distance, giving me final reserves of strength and I was able to continue running through the Brandenburg Gate and the last 200m to the finish line.
We picked up our finishers medals, collected our clothes and an Erdinger beer or two, and began to walk slowly back with the limping, shuffling crowds to Friedrichsstrasse U-Bahn. Back at Alexanderplatz we had a quick bratwurst before heading back to our hotel for a shower and an hour lying down before heading out for pizza!
So - the classic question again: will I do another? Yep - the World Half-Marathon championships in Copenhagen is next spring, and I was lucky enough to get a start number, and then the Frankfurt Marathon in October would be a nice way of celebrating my 50th year in my birthplace. Somewhere in between I'd like to try a 50k Ultra, too...
Lessons learnt:
1) Placing at the start of a big city race is crucial if you want to achieve specific time!
2) Now I've tried a 40.000 person marathon, my next races will be smaller races with fewer people and more space to find my pace!
