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The Road to Berlin: Maybe he'll learn this time.....
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Well, I'm back in the Emerald Isle, so I'll do up a quick race report, but those who follow me on Strava or saw the Berlin Marathon thread saw that it didn't quite go as hoped.
Firstly, the course and the city were fantastic. There was great support throughout, loads of drums, bands, music, and so on. It was truly a massive city wide event, and an honour to be able to take part it in, any result to one side. It was incredibly well organised, given the scale, and as a first timer in Berlin, and indeed Germany, it was so easy to get around the city via the various public transport hubs. The course was just as good as people said. While not a lot of interesting landmarks that caught my attention outside the first few and last few km, I can't say I noticed any hills or climbs at all. It felt pancake flat the whole way through, though the course was wide, which led to me running significantly over the 26.2 (I think I was logged at 26.7 or so, and very few runs I saw on Strava were much less, most were a small bit higher) - that's a relatively minor gripe and expected when you're in a congested race like this, but it wasn't a minor issue when the Brandenburg gate should have been behind me rather than a kilometer ahead!
The race. Well, where to start. The weather was perfect. I could not have picked a better set of conditions. It was about 14 degrees, full cloud cover and a light drizzle for parts of the race. It was ideal. Throughout my training, I really wasn't mentally excited or enthused about doing another marathon. I had signed up for the lotto after Dublin last year, as I was happy with that race, and felt I could have done better if my calves hadn't seized after mile 20, but I had still come in 3 mins ahead of target even with that mishap. As it got closer, I just couldn't motivate myself for it. I did the mileage. I stuck to the plan, though one long run got messed up due to illness, but as a whole, training went well. Things I could have done better
- diet was a bit iffy - ate decent dinners, but too much ****e and snacking inbetween
- strength exercises - I knew this was an area of concern. I knew it, but I did nothing really. Calves came at me a bit during a half in May. Did I bother reading the signs then? Nope. Short of a week or two of pilates earlier in the year, did I do proper stretching and looking after things? Nope. Physio to loosen things out? Why bother? It was shoddy and I had done enough marathons to know it exposes every weakness.
Anyways, I was lining up, happy as a pig in ****, thinking this was going to be a good day. Weather perfect, sure I had done two of these before, and it would all be grand. My pb for a half is 1:56:57, and I could have probably lowered that on that day, but I had set out for sub 2. No reason I shouldn't be able to get 4:15, as I was quite close last year at mile 20, and sure, I had an extra years training in the bag, and had done more miles than at this stage last year.
Mile 1: 9:39 - Nice and steady. I was up with the pacer, and chatting away. Crowded, but the roads were wide, and I had plenty of room to go around, but I just held back. No need to weave, people would push on or fall back, and I didn't need to tire myself out. I'm experienced, don't ya know?
Mile 2: 9:42 - Feeling fine, on target. All systems are a go. The waves were kind funny. I saw 4:30 pacers mixed in my my 4:15 pacers, and those shouldn't have been near my wave. Strange. Pace was a bit erratic as the crowding was hurting a bit, but overall, things were good. Saw some crazy Chinese runner bare foot sprinting past me - fair dues, but probably hurt him, as I passed him around mile 18 again, and I wasn't exactly in the best of shape myself!
Miles 3, 4, 5, 6 : 9:37, 9:49, 9:39, 9:42 - It was still fairly crowded, but again, I felt good. Took advice from here, and I avoided the first water stop. I had carried a small bottle with me, which I planned to toss at mile 13, and use an isotonic drink to help with the calf pains that inflicted me last year, where I didn't take anything like that. First gel went down fine, and all was good.
Miles 7, 8, 9, 10: 9:41, 9:43, 9:52, 9:58 - Things were okay, but around mile 10, it got a bit uncomfortable. My heart rate was fine, about mid 160s which I would have expected, breathing was fine, but the muscles were definitely started to tire, and tire way too soon. The taper, for me this time, didn't really help me feel rested. My legs were still a bit tired feeling, and I had worked about 120 hours the previous two weeks. My first day off in that two week period was actually the Saturday we flew out, and I hadn't got really decent sleep in that period.
Miles 11, 12, 13 - 10:11, 10:23, 10:58 - The wheels on the bus are no longer going round and round. ****, I was barely half way, and I was in trouble. I wasn't expecting to feel like this until past 20. I just couldn't keep it. I had to resort to walking through the water stop at Mile 13 to stretch a bit. I knew 4:15 was out, but 4:30 could still happen. Right guys? Right?
Miles 14, 15, 16, 17: 10:51, 11:15, 12:09, 11:27 - ****. 4:30 isn't going to happen. 4:40? This can't be that bad. I just couldn't get a fast pace going, as soon as I tried, a sharp pull would send me back to a pace I hadn't done in training, it was so slow. The slowest mile I did on my long run was 10:38 and that was a Mile 14 under tree cover so it's probably not accurate, as the average pace was 10:20, just over 4:30 pace. This was shaping up to be a long, long day out.
Miles 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 - 12:41, 12:14, 11:31, 11:06, 12:10, 12:13, 12:08, 12:04 - I was trying so hard to just keep up an even pace, and try to get back into it. I think 3 sets of 4:30 pacers passed me, just to rub salt in the wounds. After mile 20, I started to feel a bit better, and tried to get back into a decent rhythm, but that fell away after about half a mile. I just couldn't get back into the race, so I just gritted the teeth and tried to get through it. Every kilometer marker felt like a mile marker. I just couldn't see the end! On a side note, I saw not one, but two of the 4:30 pacers drop out! Never seen something like that before. I got chatting to an Irish girl who was suffering similar to me, and we had a brief chat and a few mile of me getting past her, her catching up, then me catching up etc.
Mile 26, 0.7 - 11:34, 10:32 - The city started getting cleaner and fancier looking so I knew I was clearly coming to the end. I had passed the dreaded Red Bull station without smelling that crap, though the thought of taking some to put me out of my misery had occurred. A lot of tired faces, but then I came around the corner and saw the gate. That glorious gate. There was no sprint finish to be had, but damned if I was going to look a state going over the line. I straightened myself up, threw away my bottle and just focused on keeping my pace even, just for the last bit. The calves started to protest, but I told them to shut the **** up, we were doing this. Crossed the line, one of the greatest feelings of relief ever. I grabbed my poncho, lay down for a few mins, and waddled off, met the wife, and got a drink in the Westin. We spent the night in the TV Tower looking down on Berlin, and chatted with a few other sadists who were coming in and out.
Official Time: 4:49:25
So what did I learn? Well, don't ever do a marathon that you're not 100% committed to, regardless of how many you've done. It exposes every weakness, and leaves you hanging out to dry. I never really had my heart in this one. I'm so, so, so glad I did do it and get through it but I know if I had approached it at the same level of dedication that I did for Dublin last year, I'd be sitting here with sub 4:15 at least. I'm planning to make 2018 a marathon free year, and just focus on 5k/10k races and some speed for the next few months, and maybe aim for a decent time in Charleville in September next year, but hey, I only started running in June 2014. That's just over 3 years ago. I've done 3 marathons, countless half marathons, and I'm in a much better place, mentally and physically, in general. This was one of the chalk it downs, and move on. I wasn't very disappointed, the way I was with the Limerick Half, where I felt I had put in the work for it to go so badly, because I knew I didn't put in enough, so I couldn't expect to get what I wanted out. I'd love another crack at Berlin. 2019 perhaps. Ja0 -
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Massive respect to you for just keeping going through it if you were feeling like that. As someone who has never run a marathon, I'm still in awe of how anyone gets through one, never mind finishes the whole thing when it's feeling bad from so early on. Your attitude to it sounds great too.
So well done, and hope you get to have some fun with your running over the next while now!
p.s. nice medal haul 0 -
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Really disappointed for you Chrislad, you showed some grit and determination to finish it out and cross the line with your head held high. That and being able to reflect on your training coming up to the marathon and point out the weaknesses will stand to you when you next tow the line at a race. Well done I think you put in a great performance and thanks for such an honest report . 0
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Really disappointed for you Chrislad, you showed some grit and determination to finish it out and cross the line with your head held high. That and being able to reflect on your training coming up to the marathon and point out the weaknesses will stand to you when you next tow the line at a race. Well done I think you put in a great performance and thanks for such an honest report .
So so true and I have read and re-read Chris's last paragraph "What did I learn" this evening as it had stuck in mind all day.
All the evidence points to an exciting year ahead. Well done again for toughing it out and having the very good sense to see the bigger picture.0 -
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Thanks Anne.
Felt a bit lazy this week, so only did the 3 runs
Tuesday: 4 miles @ 9:55
Thursday: Lunchtime break from work - 3.5 miles @ 9:29 - planning to make this a regular thing since I'm doing shorter runs than marathon training now!
Sunday: 6.2 miles @ 9:40
I must dig out a decent 5k PB plan now.0 -
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