Stick on the kettle or fill a glass of ribena, it’s time for the highly anticipated part 2 of the Berlin Marathon race report. Some critics say it’s destined to be a flailing disappointment and I think they might be right. I’m nervous. I apologise for the delay, I’m moving house. That is a terrible excuse really but it’s all I’ve got. Honestly though I really I am moving house, not literally moving the house but moving into a new one, with solar panels. Despite not being an actual race report, part 1 seemed to go down much better than anticipated so I’ll probably have to exaggerate a lot of part 2 to ensure standards are kept in line.

Race Morning
25th September. It’s race morning and the sunlight is annoyingly seeping through the gap between the curtain and window ledge, causing me to wake up before my alarm. There’s a soft tapping on my arm and my eyes slowly open. It’s Emilio Estavez from the hit movie the Mighty Ducks. “Emilio Estavez! what are you doing here of all place and of all mornings?” I mumbled. “I’m just here to exaggerate your race report. Best of luck in the race”. And with that he handed me a hockey puck and bounced off on a pogo stick. That’s weird I thought but I shook it off and got up out of the bed. I won’t exaggerate any more I promise.

It’s 6am and my sleep was a little broken as I had to get up in the middle of the night to murder mosquitos again. They were whizzing around me all through the night, taunting me about the marathon. I don’t even want to talk about it anymore, zero kills for me yet a trillion bites received. With the race starting at 9:15am my plan was to get up at 6am and have my porridge and then maybe, just maybe I’d get back to sleep until about 7:30am (like last year in Frankfurt) and steal some extra zzz’s. I stumbled into the kitchen in my underpants and there was John, in his underpants holding a bag of Flavahans porridge. I had my Wyldsson porridge with me. We had a discussion on the merits of making just one large bowl and I offered to cook it up. John uses water, I use milk so we agreed on half and half. This went well so down I sat with a big massive bowl of porridge and banana and I threw it into me. I didn’t have a coffee as I was planning on more sleep. So off I went back to bed and fell asleep until 7:30am. I woke up for the 2nd time that morning a little more refreshed than earlier and I hopped out of the bed. This is it now, it’s real. I had some toast, a beetroot & berry drink, a dioralite and a couple of coffees and I was feeling very full altogether, but very well fuelled. I donned the Leevale singlet and popped a gel in my pocket along with some jelly beans. It goes without saying that I put on shorts, socks and runners too but I just wanted to make it clear I didn’t just run in my singlet.

Before I left, I threw on the old reliable psych-myself-up tune, “Survival” by muse and I looked over some notes I had written on the plane on the way over. I had jotted down each 5k split, what time I expected to be there at and a little comment on how I might be feeling or what to expect. For example, the 10k note said something like “Take a sip of water and pop some beans. Feeling completely relaxed. How good does it feel to run a 35:xx 10k split in the marathon and feeling so comfortable?”. Then at around 25k the note was something like “Expect things to start feeling tough, take a gel if you need”. It’s a lot of obvious stuff and might seem completely corny but the idea being that when I passed those point I could call upon my expectations and if it’s aligning with reality it just reinforced confidence and that I have a plan. I’ve decided for a laugh I’m actually going to pull those original notes up on my phone and reference them in the report as I hit the splits.

We left the apartment shortly after 8am (checked there was no key on the inside and tied a key to my shorts) and off we went jogging towards the line. About 600m later we hit the masses at the Brandenburg gate and were reduced to a walk as the crowds were already forming in a very large crowd formation. There was a lot of walking in tiny steps and squashed together like animals to the slaughter. I suppose this was probably to be expected when it’s one of the most popular marathons in the world. We eventually made our way to the bag drop where I dropped off my bag with ease and we had about 45 minutes to the start now. There was another huge squash to get into the start area but myself and John squeezed through a fence but other people were doing it too so….that makes it ok.

The weather was looking good. Clear blue skies, the sun is out but it’s quite cool and fresh, temperatures expected to rise mid morning to 22 in the afternoon. Not a breeze, perfect.

John was a bit anxious to get to the start and we were doing this sort of run/walk thing but I really didn’t want to be stressing I knew we had lots of time and since we were in the front pen I knew there would be a lot less congestion there. We didn’t really get a proper warmup done but that didn’t bother me too much, we’d certainly walked enough. I must have stopped for a pee about 4 times along the way, thankfully there were loads of wooded areas. I don’t even want to know what sort of sordid things were happening in those woods that morning but I’d say it has done wonders for the fertility of the area.

We finally got to coral A and met Owen our clubmate and the 3 of us were planning on working together. It was the first time I had been in a pen where you could actually move around freely so I did some ballet style twirls but I don’t think the other lads were very impressed. The nice thing about it too was you could exit and come back in, which is exactly what I did when pee #5 came calling about 5 minutes before the start. I couldn’t believe how close we were to the front, maybe 4/5 rows back from the start line and there was an incredible atmosphere in the air. I was a little bit intimidated by the elite looking runners around me but then I remembered I had earned the right to be in there too, so I punched one of them right in the eye. Another one of my exaggerations there, I lied earlier about that being the last one and I didn’t really do ballet twirls either. It’s almost time and the announcer called out all the elites (saw our clubmate Claire on the bigs screen with all the elites which was great to see) and then it was 1 minute to go. I had a look down at my 2 pace bands with 5k splits on them. One was for 2:30 and the other for 2:32. Last year my pace bands were too optimistic, this year I wanted them to actually be useful. We agreed as a group to take 2k at the front each since the markers were in km’s. Well that plan lasted for all of…2k I think.

The Actual Race

Ok Conor, focus, seriously focus. I have to admit I wasn’t feeling terribly great standing there, I was feeling so bloated from the breakfast and the nervous energy was palpable. Somewhere in the midst of all that noise too was a calm confident voice that was telling me the training was done and there’s no reason why I can’t go out there and do a job today. A long, long countdown and then bang! Flanked by tall golden leaved trees in the middle of the Tiergarden, a frenzied stampede of maniac runners like a giant steam train, hurl down the asphalt towards the victory monument on a long journey through the streets of Berlin. Finally the race report begins. Insert 1 coin to continue.

5k – 17:54
It’s easier to do this by 5k splits since the markers were in km and the pace band too, but I still love miles. It took me about 3 or 4 km’s to get into any sort of decent rhythm. Despite being so close to the start I was baffled by the amount of people ahead of us, where the hell did they come from? are they extras? What was even more confusing was the fact we were passing them all so quickly. My best guess is people from behind getting caught up in a whirlwind of emotion and going out like the clappers. I passed one guy breathing so heavily at around 2k, he sounded (and looked) fit for A&E and was losing pace quickly. Weird. Maybe he thought it was a 5k I dunno, I didn’t think about it for long, but long enough to remember and later write about it. A quick glance down at the watch as mile splits were popping up and we were hitting around 5:45 m/m pace though I really didn’t plan on trusting the watch too much today, I was going by pace band. I felt ok for the first 5k, moving well and breathing relaxed. I also kept an eye on the HR, now just over 150 bpm. I had no intention of running to a HR, I always race by feel and for me it’s just an additional feedback metric knowing that from previous experience I can sustain around 160 bpm for a marathon. If anything it’s more of an assurance policy for the latter stages of the race. The 3 of us were still working well in a small group with the plan of taking 2k at the front now completely out the window. I tried to say something every now and then to the lads, more of a mental thing than having an actual conversation, just reassures us that the pace is comfortable. I said something along the lines of the plan being out the window and whoever was feeling good just take the reigns, this worked much better with everyone pitching in their time at the front. We hit the first 5k mat at 17:54, slightly outside 2:30 pace but a decent start and into my stride now. Took a sip of water from the frustratingly hard to drink out of plastic cups, still water got in and that’s all that matters. I lost a few meters on the lads, I’m a terrible water drinker so I had to up the pace to catch them just after the timing mat.

Mile splits (GPS, possibly dodgy)
1. 5:48
2. 5:42
3. 5:40

10k – 17:54 (35:48)
Geographically I couldn’t tell you where we were, and that goes for every part of the course. I really had little interest in sightseeing at the time. Hitting the 10k mat and the note I jotted down on the airplane popped into my head and I afforded a little smile. 35:xx just as planned and it did feel good to see that split on my watch and I really did feel comfortable and relaxed as planned. The prophecy has been fulfilled, it was a miracle! I should be on a television show on the paranormal channel. But seriously, it’s not too long ago that time alone would have been a big 10k achievement for me, I really do feel grateful and privileged to have gotten this far when I think about it now. At this stage the 3 of us were part of a now decent sized pack, no doubt the majority of the group hungry for a 2:30 and we weren’t far off pace, 16 seconds to be exact. I was also keeping an eye on the 2:32 pace band and knew I was comfortably inside that as it stands. I’m pretty sure it was this split I first saw Krusty and he gave us all a great shout out. I saw him 2 or 3 times on the course along with TRR and was great to get a that support from fellow runners I have huge admiration for. I took a sip of water at the station and then fumbled inside my back pocket to take the jelly beans like my airplane note had told me to do. I really should have opened them beforehand as my sweaty fingers fumbled with the packet before I got impatient and I tore the top off with my mouth. I was already losing a good bit of ground on the group due to my jelly issues but eventually I got 2 into my hand and flung them into my gob, making sure to chew this time so they wouldn’t come out my nose in chunks like in Frankfurt. You learn a little something from every marathon you see. My biggest lesson last year was “chew the beans”. I had to again turn on the boosters to catch up to the lads and I could see John look around in confusion when I rejoined, howya John. Anyway 10k and all going well though absolutely under no illusions, this race hasn’t even started yet. Technically, yes it has but, you know. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT!

Mile splits
4. 5:43
5. 5:43
6. 5:43

15k – 18:03 (53:50)
Still moving well and feeling good, the group of now maybe 15 guys and we’re coming up to the 10 mile mark well on track. We’re slightly off 2:30 pace but no need to radically change anything when the going is good and the group working well together. I took my fair share at the front as did the lads but I also took my fair share at the back taking shelter, these are the benefits of a group and while putting in your own shift is important, you should be able to take a little back too and grab your breathers when you need them. The 3 of us were still running closely at the front of the group, we tended to call each other out when pace felt it was increasing which was great, we just had to be a little vigilant especially in the early stages. When I think about it now, I was feeling really good knowing I was about 30 seconds outside 2:30 pace. Was there potential to increase the pace and try claw back those seconds now instead of later? No doubt I could have but at what cost? A big one I would say. Effort would certainly have increased and I’d potentially be breaking away from the group and my clubmates and running solo, not to mention an increased likeliness of burning out at the business of the race. I have to ask these questions because I want to learn from each race but in hindsight I think it was the right strategy at the time and I think the group played a big part that day. I was well inside 2:32 pace with HR at a steady 155 and as I mentioned earlier, this was a very satisfactory outcome for me.

Mile splits
7. 5:35
8. 5:45
9. 5:35

20k – 17:47 (1:11:37)
We hit the 10 mile mark at just over 57 minutes and according to my airplane notes I’m moving well and I can keep this up. Thanks airplane Conor. Coming to the 20k mark and we’re almost half way and we have run our quickest 5k split though I have no idea at the time. All I know is I’m feeling as good as I could have expected coming towards the halfway mark. Tiredness starts becoming a factor now, nothing catastrophic just a slow creeping of fatigue into the legs which is completely expected and acknowledged but I’m still confident I can pull off something very similar in the 2nd half. I know we’re heading for around 75 mins for the half and happy with how we controlled that first half.

Mile splits
10. 5:46
11. 5:43
12. 5:40

25k – 18:03 (1:29:40)
We hit halfway in 1:15:33 and I was pleased with that. Airplane note tells me I’m feeling great and to just simply do it all again, focus hard and stay relaxed. At halfway though I had to ask myself the question, do I want to risk a great time for an excellent time and try pull back those 30 seconds? Based on how I was feeling, did I have a low 74 half in me? My gut feeling was caution, I’m in a really good rhythm right now, it feels just about sustainable for another half so I wasn’t willing to risk increasing the effort, just keep going as you are and see how it plays out. The legs said “warning: do not increase pace” but they always lie to get out of doing work, this was a mental discussion. The group was still going well but it was around the 25k marker when Owen was running alongside me. He turned to me and said “I’m starting to work hard now”. Not good I thought. Because we still had a good distance to go I didn’t want to insult his intelligence telling him to hang in there and it’ll be fine. I really wasn’t sure how to respond other than agreeing it was starting to feel difficult and “just an hour to go”. Maybe that helped, maybe it didn’t but to me an hour didn’t sound that long and I was still feeling ok. Not great, not terrible, ok.

Mile splits
13. 5:37 (halfway in 1:15:33)
14. 5:36
15. 5:52

30k – 17:59 (1:47:39)
In was in these few mile where unfortunately Owen fell off the pace and I found myself running alongside John. The large group itself was starting to diminish and scatter out along the road. We’re truly entering the business end of the race now and this is where the training is tested. John was dictating the pace at this stage, I was working that bit extra to keep up the pace and we’re down to maybe 4/5 guys, it’s a very hazy patch so I’m not sure what else to say. The splits suggest I was moving pretty well here but I was definitely feeling the tiredness creep further up my legs towards my…arms. The pace band I was focussing on now was firmly the 2:32, you may call that defeatist but it was my gut instinct at the time and felt like the realistic goal. At 30k I was about 25 seconds inside it and while HR is still reassuringly constant, I’m tiring and kind of glad I didn’t increase the pace earlier. My airplane prophecy suggested there would be a bad patch coming soon and to take a gel if I feel like it. I took the caffeine gel at the 30k mark along with water as usual, went down fine and I didn’t actually fall off the group this time. It was probably around now that I saw TRR who gave us a great shout, maybe it was later on actually but still he took a great photo which I’ll post at the end purely because it makes me look good and John look bad. It’s really a great boost to see familiar faces support you at a foreign marathon. I was lucky to have familiar faces this time but If you don’t have any at your marathon you can easily conjure them up using your brain by imagining familiar faces on random strangers. That’s a free tip from me to you.

Mile splits
16. 5:29
17. 5:42
18. 5:44

35k – 18:17 (2:05:55)
Slowest 5k split yet but not a dramatic decrease in pace, it’s pure fatigue kicking in. Breathing was fine and generally throughout the race, along with the HR it was very consistent and controlled. Somewhere here was my rough patch and in a slightly perverse way it was welcomed. I was waiting for it so I could get through it and then kick on. It really didn’t last too long and I can’t pinpoint the miles either but I definitely struggled at times. I was still always moving pretty well and just trying to stick with John, a lot of it is mental too. We hit the 20 mile mark and it wasn’t even acknowledged though we were both probably thinking the same thing, here we go, the pain train. The Airplane notes told me that at 20 miles it’s just a 35 minute Thursday track tempo left. I shouldn’t have made that note, it’s not what I wanted to hear at 20 miles. As we neared the 35k water stop John now had a bit of a gap on me, maybe 3-4 meters and all I thought was what’s new, the fecker is away from me again. As we got to the actual water stop I was suddenly after catching him, details hazy whether he slowed or I picked it up but we’re running alongside each other again and we’ve 7km to go. At 35k my airplane self tells me to take water and beans and it’s just one more lap of the marina on a fresh Sunday morning. I took some beans and I’m starting to feel good.

Mile splits
19. 5:43
20. 5:51
21. 5:51

40k – 18:20 (2:24:14)
I was really starting to tire but as you can see from the 5k split, the pace didn’t really slow dramatically and I was holding it together. It was around mile 22 I realised I was now running solo. The tables had finally turned and I had pulled away from John for a change, for the first time ever actually. I had no idea where he was relative to me but my instinct was not very far away. To quote a clubmate, John’s “as gritty as they come”. I was completely focussed now on getting through the last few miles and thinking back now, I think I was loving it. Though the last 6 miles of a marathon can be absolute hell, the exhilaration and the rush is indescribable, particularly alongside a raucous Berlin crowd. Breaking the last 6 miles down into 3 x 2 mile blocks helped me mentally…22…24…26. You know? A guy in a black onesie came up alongside me at some point and he was looking really strong so I just clung to him though he eventually pulled away, it was of little concern. I was happy with how I was moving given the effort levels. Pace, heart race, pace band or any of that didn’t matter during this patch, it was listening to my body, getting the effort level right and making sure I got to that line as efficiently as I could. When I did hit the 40k mark I had a glance at my pace band, in fact I had about 4 glances because sums were difficult at the time. According to the pace band I needed to be hitting the 40k mark in 2:24:05 in order to run a 2:32. I crossed the mat in 2:24:13, that’s 8 seconds to make up. My immediate thought was leave nothing out there, to put the hammer down and hunt down those 8 seconds, and make them pay. Either way I knew I was on for a great time and a big PB but I was so so close to dipping under the 2:32. I’ve never felt so good hitting the 40k mark in a marathon so no better time to wind up for a strong finish. I got another shout 23 mile maybe from a very vocal Krusty, it was much appreciated so I threw the thumbs up his way. I didn’t recall my airplane notes here but the note is pretty entertaining regardless “give it all you’ve got. You’ve given yourself the best possible shot, leave nothing out there. Dig deep. Take a sip of water only if you need to”. I didn’t take a sip of water, I was done with water but I was digging deep and I had given myself a pretty good shot.

Mile splits
22. 5:39
23. 5:42
24. 5:50

42k – 7:32 (2:31:46)
I felt completely in the zone and I was making ground on a lot of guys ahead of me, I picked up maybe 5 or 6 places up over those last few km, including that chap in the black onesie who got away from me earlier. The crowd were just amazing today and it felt like an extra hand on my back pushing me for those last 2k. I was soaking up all the support and moving so well. I had no idea if I was going to claw back those few seconds or not. I was genuinely enjoying that last stretch I felt so good, there was nothing stopping me between here and the finish line. Suddenly it’s 41km and its only 1km to go, it’s nothing! The finish in Berlin is exceptional. The towering Brandenburg gates come into view just after the 41km mark as you turn the corner. The boisterous spectators flank the wide open street urging you every last step of the way. I was somehow able to actually pick it up over that last km, I was gunning for the clock and got into a mini battle with one of the guys from our earlier group. This probably helped my cause a lot. We were jostling back and forth, my legs again felt slightly possessed like the finish last year but the difference this time was I was able to increase the pace. Coming under the Brandenburg gate I somehow instinctively knew I had done enough to get the time and embarrassingly raised a fist in the air. I slightly die inside looking back at the video but I was hugely pumped knowing I had managed to do it. There was still a good 200m or so to go after the gates and the clock came into view and then I knew for sure I had a bit of a cushion. My jostling partner had the legs on me and pipped me at the line but I didn’t care then. I cross the line in 2:31:46. I had done it. A shiny new PB by over 5 minutes and I ran the second half in 76:13. 107th overall. Elated. A time nobody can ever take from me. What a feeling.

Mile splits
25. 5:39
26. 5:42
0.4. 2:24 (@ 5:18)

The Aftermath

I gathered myself for a moment and my first thought was to turn around to wait for John. I thankfully didn’t have to wait for long, he came in just under a minute later in 2:32:41 and another big PB. Owen came in just under 2:38 which is still a fantastic time but understandably he was disappointed not to PB. I hung around and congratulated my beaming clubmate Claire on her terrific 2:38 pretty much qualifying her for the world’s next year. I was in wonderland myself, soaking it all up and wandering about like a zombie. I met my clubmate Donal who ran an impressive debut of 2:45 and then met a delighted Rolex (from here) with another brilliant PB of 2:45 and it was great to have a little post race chat with himself and few other lads from Cork. Following a light massage, I sat with the lads downing a non alcoholic (booo) beer, drowning in the midday sun.

Myself and John headed to find the boards meeting point but ended up stuck on the wrong side of the street and couldn’t cross the road because, you know, there was a marathon on. We grabbed a real beer and a bratwurst and I think I blacked out it was so good, or maybe it was the delirium setting in. We hung there for a while and then decided to go try cross the road but by the time we got to a crossing point we were essentially back at our apartment and there really was no going back. After a good rest we headed out for some evening sun beers with my clubmates in a beer garden very far away. I really don’t know how we managed to walk there without complaining once. It was a great evening as we shared stories of our battles and compared emotional wounds. We headed for a delicious asian meal that evening and then met some of the boards crew in an Irish pub for a nightcap. It was great to meet some for the first time including Adrian and overpronator, great guys and always nice to finally put faces to names. I went to bed pretty happy that night, and not just because of all the pints. I was so happy I decided I wouldn’t kill any mosquitos, it was open season, take as much blood as you want lads. Not that it would have mattered anyway, I was in a coma within 13 seconds of my head hitting the pillow. Funny enough I didn’t get any bites.

We stayed in Berlin until the Wednesday and we were out and about cycling around the city for next few days exploring, learning, eating pizza and guzzling German beer, just as planned. What a fantastic few days, left with a bag of great memories (and smelly gear).

Some Final Thoughts

Clearly I’m more than happy with that result. Not hitting 2:30 was never going to be a bad result and I was prepared for that, for me it’ll come in time. Even taking off the chunk I did is more than I expected back at the start of this cycle in May. I joined Leevale 2 and a half years ago with a PB of 2:54. I wouldn’t have comprehended back then running a time like that in such a short time but all the elements seemed to have aligned for me and I’ve been lucky enough to get a great run of training in over those years, major injuries have kept at bay, I have always a great reliable group to train with and a coach that gets the basics right. Each marathon I run, which is 6 now, I’m learning more about myself as a runner and how to execute a marathon race well. There are always things I get wrong but I try focus more on what I got right and try bring it into the next training cycle.

What’s next? I don’t know right now, the hunger hasn’t quite returned but I know it will but it’s important to recover well from this and only return to proper training when I’m ready. I don’t know when the next marathon will be but that certainly wasn’t my last. I’ll probably stop logging for a while now but hopefully this has been useful for some people. The training as you can see is fairly predictable and not complicated but that’s only the training. The stuff that’s individual, managing the niggles, watching for signs of overcooking it, sleep, nutrition and the extra stuff like rubs and foam rolling, they all make a difference too and shouldn’t be underestimated.

What a RIDICULOUSLY LONG race report, almost illegal I would say. Sorry for putting you through all of that but I enjoyed writing it even though it’s taken about 4 years. I’ve had my fun and that’s all that matters.