Background: I'm writing this around 6:30am, on the way home from the Berlin Marathon, currently on the train from Berlin to Frankfurt before my afternoon flight back to Hong Kong. I can truly say that's been a great trip - an amazing marathon in an amazing city. But given that I've previously expressed my reservations about these overseas races and the sheer waste of it all - in this case 58,000 people (though I guess many from Berlin & Germany) flying in, buying copious amounts of stuff they don't need, running, and then flying out again, how did I end up doing this race? To answer that question, let's go back to 2023.

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I'd never considered Berlin as an option before - it's one of the (highly sought-after) six Marathon Majors, so I didn't even think of trying to get in. As other pages attest to, I managed to get into Tokyo for my first two marathons, and although I don't remember to apply every year, I have applied a few times since and never got back in. I've also applied to London but have also been unsuccessful in their lottery. New York and Chicago seem like too much of a long shot, while Boston remains well out of my reach due to it's strict (fast) qualifying rules. Anyhow, back to Berlin, and once I saw the someone's effort flash up on my strava feed after the race last year, I looked it up and noted down the application dates for the lottery. Long story short, I got a slot and unlike other lottery events, the race fee is automatically deducted from your credit card once you get the slot - no time to have a proper think to make sure it's a feasible trip. But I was in, and in order to beat the demand, I soon booked my flight and 5-night stay in Berlin - arriving there on the Thursday before the (Sunday) race and leaving early on the Tuesday morning. There are no direct flights into Berlin from Hong Kong, so I also booked the fast, ICE train from Frankfurt to Berlin.

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The trip there was pretty straightforward - arriving early morning into Frankfurt and working my way through the vast airport to the 'flughafen' and the fast train to Berlin before getting a local train that took me closer to my hotel. I chose the Lutzow Hotel as it was within walking distance of the race start - anything to reduce excess faff on race morning, though more of that later. I didn't venture too far on my first evening and the main thing I needed to do on the Friday was to collect my race bib from the expo. I'd joined a facebook group of Berlin Marathon runners and there were some horror stories of massive congestion and long queues on the first day, so I aimed to get there early the following morning. As it was, I was awake around 5am, so I decided to do a bit of early morning sightseeing before getting the the expo around 9:30am - 30mins before opening time. The sightseeing was great - we'd seen most of the sights during our 2016 Euro-trip, so I retraced those steps and ticked them all off again. As I've said a few times when writing about races and places in Germany, I love Germany - I seem to fall in with the vibe pretty easily and although my high school German is long-forgotten, I gave it a try which seems to be appreciated. Anyhow, back to the sightseeing and there were a lot of runners out so I did feel a little guilty not running, but with my recent injuries, I had decided to forego any 'shakeout' run and the 10km walk would keep my legs in check.

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To the expo now, which took place at the Berlin Templehof airport, an iconic location and one of the few places with intact Nazi era-architecture. As it happens, I got there just after 9am and after the previous day's chaos, I hoped they might open early to get a head start on the day. There were around 30 people ahead of me and although there was no organized queuing system, a self-managed queue formed behind us as the time ticked towards 10am. However, not only did they not open before the designated time, they didn't even open on time - finally letting us in around 6-7 minutes late. I was one of the first in and although it was not well sign-posted, I followed the leaders and got through pretty quickly. There was no additional merchandise included in the race fee, so I also bought a finisher t-shirt - an advanced purchase is not something I like to do, but it would have been a shame not to come away with a souvenir of some sort. Once through, the exit was via the air-side runway area so I took my time out there, soaking in the iconic and historical buildings and airplanes. Once done, I headed out and worked my way back to my hotel via the train - an added bonus was that all participants had free local public transport from the Friday to the Monday. I didn't do too much for the remainder of the day, just enjoyed some rest and found a great noodle shop in the evening, which provided most of my calories in the run up to the race. Saturday was also a quiet day - just a short morning walk to keep things moving and then all my race preparations, making sure I had everything in order. Onto the race itself...

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Raceday: My sleep wasn't great - I had some tummy troubles during the night and was inevitably passing a lot of water and once awake I was peeing every 20 minutes or so. I tried to drink more to re-stock, but I was probably flushing out a lot of electrolytes at the same time. Not good, but at least the race was going to be cooler - it was 8 degrees when I left the hotel and the forecast for my race time was around 10 degrees. I had planned for the cool temperatures and wore a few throwaway layers that I would discard just before the race start - I'm glad I did as it was definitely cold out there. 

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On the street, there were a lot of runners walking to the race start, so it was easy enough to get there, albeit a 40-minute walk. Once there, the organization wasn't great but I soon worked my way through the checkpoints to my corral. I placed myself right at the back and had around 45 minutes to wait. Fortunately, I had no need of the portaloos as I had pretty much emptied myself overnight - I just took a couple of 'number 1s' in the open air urinals.

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I was in Corral F, which was the second batch of starters at 9:45am - the first batch going off at 9:15am. This was probably a little high for me and indeed, the 4-hour pacers, who I would have wanted to tag along with, were all in the third wave. I contemplated dropping back, but I know how antsy I get pre-race and felt it would be better to start earlier and manage my own pace, as I always do. There were some 3'45" pacers in our corral, and although that pace would have been about right for me in training, it would have stretched me out too much at the start.

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The Race: As the start time approached, I stripped off my layers and had around 10 minutes of cold before I crossed the line and started my race. I was carrying 11 gels as well as some electrolyte tabs and for the first time ever in a race, my phone. It really is an iconic race, so I felt that if I do have to get through it with a lot of walking, I could at least record some of the sights. I should really have practiced this in training as my running belt was pretty heavy and needed some adjustment in that first kilometre.

 

I've not made any mention of my training or fitness thus far, so maybe now is the right time. Ultimately, I came into this race very under-cooked, with my longest training run only 22.5km, albeit in the HK heat. The past year saw the injury-bug finally catch up with me and indeed, it was on October 1 2023 (exactly a year ago as I write this), that I tore my meniscus during a training run. I took some time out after that, but still managed to run the Macau Marathon in December 2023 and the Hong Kong Marathon in January 2024. I took more time out after Hong Kong, but after starting up again in May, I was feeling some more-serious hip pain and had to take another break with a torn tendon. Finally in late June, I felt good enough to run again, and got in some good runs while in the UK. Unfortunately though, I then sustained a stress fracture to my vertebrae and had to take another break from running. So all in all, very under-cooked indeed.

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As I started running, I knew I could run a decent 22km as I had done this in training, the question was not if, but when I would have to start walking. I maintained a pretty comfortable pace in the early stages, getting my gels in and topping up my water bottle. I was slower than usual though, as I crossed the 21km mark in 2'01" - probably my slowest first half of a marathon for a some time. But I was all about sustaining myself and just felt that the slower pace might just reap dividends as the race went on. Also, as I knew Phoebe was tracking me, I felt that I needed to put in a decent effort so my next target was the tracking point at 25km. I made it there okay and I felt this was my realistic running limit - that hot 22.5km training run would surely translate to a 25/26km run in the cool. But 25km would still leave me with a 17km shuffle, so I figured to should aim to get this down to 15km - the 27km mark. My pace was starting to slow down now and I saw my first 6min/km at this point, but after 27km, I pushed myself to keep going to the 30km tracking point. I reasoned with myself here - my heart rate was good - sitting between 155 and 160bpm - I still had plenty of gels with me, my water bottle was full and the only thing that was against me was my legs - they were hurting, but I could endure that. So 30km then became 32km which would leave my with only a 10km shuffle and 32km soon became 35km. It was only at this point that I realized that I just had to hang on and run the whole way. This is Berlin and if this was to be my last marathon (more of that later), I had to go out with a blast. So I hung on and slowly ticked off those last 6-7km. My pace continued to slip but stayed in the 6'30"/km range and I could work with that. The crowds were great throughout, but they really helped at this point and I really enjoyed some of the booming music which came along every few hundred metres. 

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The pacers finally caught up with me - the 4-hour bunch from the previous corral as well as, strangely, another 3'45" bunch - not sure why they would have started behind us. They also caused problems as they were faster and squeezed through the runners. I'm a bit of an elbow runner too - it didn't hurt me, but some of them did get an unintentional elbow on their way through. 

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Eventually the Brandenburg Gate came into view and although it was a longish way off, I got my phone out and recorded the last five minutes of the race. If this really was to be my last one, at least I have the last of it on record. As I passed through the Gate itself, I didn't have a lot left but I did enjoy those last few hundred meters as I crossed the line in a respectable 4'17". No regrets, I'd left it all out there.

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The Finish Line Experience:  Once past the finish line, it was a fairly well-organized, albeit congested, finish line experience. We shuffled through and as a 'no bag drop-off' runner, I was entitled to a fancy poncho which was definitely needed in the cooler weather. I can never eat or drink much straight after a marathon and I wish I could have enjoyed the celebrations a little more, but I was truly exhausted. I soon found a seat for 10-15mins, but didn't hang around too long - I slowly worked my way home via the train and a longish and quite sore walk.

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Post Race thoughts: Let's remember this is Berlin, Germany so it was always going to be a well-organized race (although not perfect), and definitely worth doing once. The expo had it's challenges and the signage before and after the race could have been more prominent. The corrals were apparently open to abuse too - reports of many slower runners sneaking into the first wave which led to faster runners having to endlessly weave around them. The course is pretty good - fairly flat (fast) with great support throughout which is a massive bonus and not something I'm used to in the smaller races. There are no out and back sections either, these always seem to get to me - the course is all one road and has no repeated sections. It wasn't quite perfect though - some sections were quite narrow and although I only used the aid stations three times to fill up my bottle, I was surprised to see them only on one side of the road and not especially long either. This inevitably caused people to dart in front of you which is a hazard for sure - a trip or a twisted ankle would not have been good. On top of that, from what I could see they were only giving out water too - not ideal if you needed an extra boost, although I saw some coke being offered around 40km. There was one Mautren-sponsored aid station at 27km which gave out gels - I took one but didn't use it as it was new to me. I did read reports of some runners taking up to 12 gels though, leaving none for the later runners - better planning needed here.

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Although I loved the whole experience, I'm not sure I'd go back - once is enough for me. I loved the city and if I ever live in Europe again, I might give it a try, but from Asia, with a 13-hour flight, 4-hour train, 5 nights in a hotel then the same back again - it's unlikely I would go through that again. On top of that, I'm used to smaller races and the 'six-star' crowd takes some getting used to. Each to their own, but to them it was all about the 'merch' and self-promotion and maybe less about the running, although most are pretty quick on the road. They arrive in their marathon major gear - from Boston, NYC, Chicago etc., then buy a whole other load of race gear to wear at their next race. Then to see them walking around town with their medals displayed the following day was a surprise - I've never seen this before and 'medal-wankers' was my oft-repeated, quiet utterance. The 'fomo-facebook' crowd too - posting vigorously in the hours and days after the race, scrambling for anything they didn't get, queuing up to get their medals engraved and even scrambling for newspapers as one local rag published the results the following day. Many had already left Berlin, so pleaded with strangers to buy and send them a copy. It was a useful group in the run up with extra info about the logistics, but I soon left the group after the marathon was over. Maybe I'm too old for all this, but I just prefer to fly in, see some local sights, run my race and fly out. 

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The Future: With my injuries this year, I have been thinking about my marathon future and whether I can keep doing this. Going into the race, I did feel that this really should be my last one. I'll take a rest but will inevitably still run, but maximum half-marathon distance and just enjoy some leisurely running, swimming and a bit of biking. The Hong Kong Marathon in early-2025 is next on the agenda and I did the right thing here - I opted for the half-marathon and with Phoebe running too, it will be great to run one with her. My torn meniscus will not get better, I'll have to manage that from now on and while my hip injury could get better, it seems to be there for the long-term too. On top of that, I'm always at risk for stress fractures - they can happen at anytime.

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Having Said All That: I'm now at #17, and that seems like a strange number to end on. So, while still sitting on the train to Frankfurt, I've come to a decision. What I'll do is this...I don't much like the over-hyped and extra fuss of the Marathon Majors, but if you can't beat 'em, and I've done two of them with four to go. Boston is my ultimate dream but may not be possible, so for numbers 18, 19 and 20, I'll apply to London, Chicago and New York each year and if I get lucky, I'll race them and inch closer to #20. Then one day in the future, if my knees, hips and back will allow me, I'll come out of marathon-running retirement and end with Boston - there would be no better finale. 

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