My wave for the Berlin Marathon started at 10:12 am, which is very late start for me. Usually races in Australia start at dawn, sometimes you start in the dark and get to see the sunrise. This meant a very different kind of race morning.

I woke naturally at around 7 am, put the first clothes I could lay my hands on (I actually just put a jumper on over my pyjama top and changed my shorts for jeans) and went down for breakfast—pancakes with maple syrup and an apple juice.

Back up in the room I got G to tape where I normally get chafing on my back and also put sunscreen on my back and I put his sunscreen on because he was leaving to go to the start before me.

We had a Travelling Fit group photo at 7:45, then I got ready, pottered around triple checking everything until it was time for me to leave just after 9 am. I walked along the river to the start and ate a banana on the way.

Entry to the site was easy and I got a toilet stop in (OMG worse then using an outback drop toilet) and was in my corral at 10:00 am. The atmosphere was amazing, great DJ and everyone really excited. I started at the back of my wave because I felt I would be one of the slower ones (an unnecessary consideration judging from the speed of some of the runners I passed early on).

The start had a left and right section which went opposite ways around the first roundabout. At first I was lined up on the right side but the left had less people and emptied out earlier so I hopped over before I started and had all this space to myself. It was kind of a strange way to start, not being in a mass of runners. G encouraged me to get the race photos because it was my first marathon so I’ve got a few from the race. I’m in the blue singlet and green cap.

At the 2K mark I thought to myself “crap … 42K is a long way”, LOL. So I just kept telling myself to keep reeling in the K’s one at a time. After that I didn’t think too much about the finish and was just concentrating on keeping my pace steady.

This worked until the 25K mark when I started cramping in my quads, just above the knee on the inside. I’ve had this before in the 2 Bays 28K trail race but I thought it was just because of the hills. Obviously not because Berlin is so flat. Do you know how hard it is to stretch out a quad cramp with setting off a cramp in your hamy or calf? Pretty difficult!

After a bit of walking and a 30s session with a pole on the side of the rode I managed to clear it. I also decided to replace my next gel with my drink mix which I had planned to take at about 34K. The drink mix has electrolytes which did seem to help a bit so I finished all my drink mix and then switched back to gels.

The cramps did not go away for the rest of the race so I spent the time running until I felt them start to cramp and then walking, that way the cramps didn’t tighten up completely and after a small bit of walking I was able to keep running. So basically rinse and repeat until the end. Although my running stints got longer and the last K or so I just kept running, even though I could feel them tightening, they didn’t stop me from running.

Anyway, I finished in 5:08:34 which was slower than I hoped for but my main goal was just to finish a marathon, which I did. I also beat G, the first and most probably only time. He had been injured and hadn’t run for the 2 weeks before the marathon and had been on and off for the month before. If it hadn’t been a major with all the travel involved he would have pulled out. He couldn’t forego this opportunity to complete another major if it was at all possibly to finish. He did say has a newfound respect for us back of the pack runners now because the time on feet killed him.

A few observations:

• The drink stations were absolute mayhem. Berlin uses plastic not paper cups so you can’t do the pinch and run trick like you do with paper cups. Plus at my pace most people will be walking through the drink area especially this year because it was a hot day. But I would have thought most would be walking purposefully but there were a lot that seemed to be treating it like a stroll in the park so there was ducking, warning and cutting in and out to get a drink and avoid the strollers.
• At and just after the drink stops the road was really wet but once it dried out you had a couple of hundred metres were the road was all sticky from the gels and energy drinks that had spilled.
• Since it was hot the organises had set up water showers to run through just before a lot of the drink stops. Sometimes these were from the back of fire trucks. I went through most of these to cool off which was fun.
• I usually try to get off the middle of the course when I’m needing to walk but I passed lots of people who just walked along the blue line (shortest path) for ages. I guess a lot of people are just concerned with their own race and not on being courteous to the other runners. Later on I had to stop and correct course when walkers would turn around to chat to someone or take a selfie without moving yo the side. This and the very bad self-seeding of many is a bit annoying. Maybe we need a running etiquette education program? That being said, there were a lot like me who moved to the other side. Towards the end we all tried to line up behind each other while we walked which kept more of the road free for people who were running.
• A lot of the Berlin course (at least when I went through) is shaded by buildings and trees so even though it was hot it was not as bad as it could have been if we were running in the sun.
• At one point we had to stop and let a police car cross the course which was actually a good bit of novelty at 30-something Ks. (the pause was pretty quick)
• Towards the end when I was tired and passing people and they suddenly put their arm out or veered across I gave up trying not to touch them and just pushed past and gave up apologising. I was over that.

At the finish line the medic was there wanting the thumbs up if you didn’t need assistance, which I didn’t, then we funnelled through to get our medal and then water. I had put a hydration tablet in my pocket which I put into the water. I realised later that I should have done this during the race but the mind isn’t always working the best in that situation.

Somehow I missed the fruit and also the ponchos and found myself outside the finishers area. I stopped to get my medal engraved. The walk back to the hotel was brutal. I couldn’t decide what to eat so I went up to the hotel lounge and grabbed some pastries. Then I had a shower and climbed into bed while G took the washing to the laundromat. He was leaving early the next morning and needed all his clothes clean as he couldn’t wash while he was working in the UK.

6:30 pm we went down to the Travelling Fit celebration drinks. Shared some stories from the race with our fellow runners. I was sensible and stuck with water so I could have a drink a dinner. I figured one drink was my limit after the marathon. There were also no chairs so we reached our limit for standing, around the time we needed to leave for our dinner booking at 7:30.

Dinner was G’s usual post-marathon dinner of steak. We went to Brecht’s which was only 400m from our hotel. Great steak, terrible service.

I spent the next three days sightseeing with Tobia which I will recap but not until I get home, but can I just say Tobia was a wonderful guide and we had a great time.

She also took a few photos of me with my medal.