I arranged to join the Marathon Tours group, which had a group at the Grand Hyatt and the Berlin Marriott. I chose the Berlin Marriott for my hotel.
After one last marathon paced tempo run on Tuesday morning, I flew out of Nashville at 11:15 AM with a connection in Newark and arrived in Berlin on Wednesday morning, at 7:30 AM. I had checked in online with Marriott and it was wonderful news when I got a text at the airport, while waiting for my luggage, that my room was ready. Sometimes you have to wait until late in the afternoon for your room, so it was great to be able to get to the hotel early and get my room.
One of the first things I did was get out for an easy 4 mile run in Tiergarten park. This was just a few minutes walk from the hotel and is also where the marathon starts and ends.
Although it's not advised to nap on the day you get to Europe to help with getting over jetlag, I did take a 2 hour hap and then slept 12 hours Wednesday night.
Thursday I went out for another easy 6 mile run and then on Friday I ran 4 miles with 4 x 1:00 strides. I felt I was getting adjusted to the time zone.
On Friday afternoon, I walked out by the Brandenburg Gate which is just before the 42km mark where you are heading towards the finish line.
On Saturday there was an International 6K Breakfast Run that started at a palace and finished in the 1936 Olympic Stadium where Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals. This was a fun run in which Marathon Tours bused us to the event and back.
Saturday night there was a pasta dinner with the Marathon Tours group and I had my gear ready before dinner so I could relax at dinner time.
I took 2 Benadryls on Saturday night and went to bed at 8 PM with the alarm set for 6 AM. I had a pretty good night of sleep and felt pretty rested when I got up at 6 AM and drank my Powerade and ate my Clif Bars. I then laid back down until 7 AM.
I started the 15-20 minute walk to the start area around 7:45 AM with a group of Marathon Tour runners. It was about 45 degrees out and I had a stocking cap, gloves, and arm warmers on in addition to my running gear to keep me warm at the start.
My training had me peeking for this race and my coach thought I was in the best marathon shape ever. My plan was to start around a 7:48 pace and hold that for 15 or so miles and then hopefully be able to drop that to around 7:45 pace and maybe slightly faster at the end.
When the race started, I quickly got right into the 7:48 pace zone and both the first two miles hit right at 7:48 and the third dropped to 7:51, but it was a good 5K start. The arm warmers, gloves, and stocking cap got tossed on the second mile.
After the first 5K, the road narrowed and it started to get crowded. So I found myself having to go with the pace of others and it was hard to find gaps to pass people. At the same time, I could feel the warmth from the sunshine as we were in an open area without any tall buildings. I really felt like I had to hold back some if it stayed that warm. I looked around and couldn't see a cloud in the sky.
The second 5K I found myself about 10 seconds slower per mile than my target. But pace adjustments needed to be small and gradual. Miles 7, 8, and 9 came in at 7:46, 7:50, 7:51 so I felt I was getting back on track. But in that next section, the path must have narrowed to about 8 feet. It was kind of crazy, almost came to a stop as the runners had to merge into a narrow gap.
At the same time, I really could sense that I didn't have what it takes to keep that targeted pace and found myself settling for a slower pace when miles 10-12 came in at 8:00, 8:10, 8:03. I realized I was going to have to hang on to finish this marathon. It was a terrible feeling running miles 13-15 at 8:16, 8:32, and 8:35 and little did I know sub 9 miles were over for the day.
I hit the halfway mark at 1:45:19, but early in the second half I knew I wasn't even going to have a shot at the 3:40 BQ even though I started the day thinking I could run sub 3:25.
But the second half was a test in perseverance. What would it take to hang on and run the last 10 miles while feeling very little strength left in the body. I found myself anxious for each water stop as I was getting thirsty and never skipped one water stop and on the last couple I found myself taking two cups of water. That had never happened before.
Miles 16-23 came in at 9:03, 9:02, 9:18, 9:06, 9:17, 9:02, 9:32 as I kept hanging on, just putting one foot in front of the other, refusing to stop and walk. One thing that keeps me from walking is that I've completed every marathon in under 4 hours. I wasn't going to lose that streak.
With a few miles to go, I did the math work and figured I could run 10:xx miles the rest of the way and still sneak under 3:50. While, this certainly wasn't what I was hoping for when the day started, it was at least something to drive for keep me moving and not giving up.
With there being a lot of turns, it was tough to run the perfect tangent and my GPS came in at 26.44 miles and the official time was 3:49:24 as miles 24-26 came in at 10:08, 10:13, 10:34 and my sprint for the last .44 miles a blistering 9:35 pace. I'll take it!
This made it 7 marathons in 24 months. Although it wasn't the time I was shooting for, it was still my 3rd best marathon and it gave me a test in how to keep going while things weren't going the way you wanted to. The finish line never felt so good. I think the tougher the race you are having, you appreciate the finish line more knowing you made it.
I really couldn't pin point it to any one thing as to why this marathon didn't go as planned. Although I felt warm in some spots on the course, later on you would hit some cool patches between buildings and overall, the weather was pretty good. My training peeked for this race and I felt really rested for the race, but couldn't give the performance I wanted to.
My conclusion, I think anything can happen on marathon day. 26.2 miles is a long way and you can't take anything for granted. You can come in great condition, get great weather, but you still don't know how your body and mind will react when the marathon gets started. Today the marathon won, but I think I'm still up 6-1.
All I can do is train again for the next one and give it all I got.
I got up Monday morning and ran a couple miles, the run streak continued at 256.
I did reward myself on Monday night with a U2 concert package, which was a lot of fun.
With the normal marathon soreness in the legs, it was nice to have the seat with the most leg room in the economy section of the plane:
After a couple weeks of recovery running, I can get back to business. Marathons #8 and #9 are already booked. Paris in the springtime should be wonderful.
Until next time, stay safe out there on the roads.
