2011 Berlin Marathon

Report by: Bert Whitson

Ankur's race report was totally lame IMHO, so I felt compelled to write one... My training had been going great until a few weeks before the marathon when I started having some calf issues. This forced me to skip some workouts, cut a few track workouts short, and essentially over-taper leading up to race day. I felt like I had retained just enough fitness to hit my initial 2:43 goal - so the plan was to keep the pace roughly even at ~6:13/mile and not let myself get ahead of pace to give my bum calf any chance of making it to the end.

We landed in Berlin a couple days before the marathon to try to acclimatize to the 9 hour time difference (the marathon start time was 9am, which is midnight California time). I carbo loaded on pretzels and bread, which was awesome - the Germans really take pride in their bread.

On the morning of the marathon we rented bicycles and rode to the start - it worked out great (great idea Mike and Ankur!). The port-o-potty lines were prohibitively long, so people were doing their business out in the open, in plain view - no shame from these Europeans...

The start line announcer introduced world record holders Haile Gebrselassie and Paula Radcliffe (sidenote, Geb's record was broken less than 2 hours and 4min later) then shot the starting gun.

The first half mile was a little crowded but then I had some room to work with and was able to get into a rhythm. An interesting complication about Berlin was that there are no mile-markers - only kilometer-markers. Since I'm not accustomed to thinking in kilometers, I relied on my Garmin watch to get my mile splits. Mile 1 was 6:13, right on my target pace and a huge improvement over previous marathons where I went out too fast. The pace felt really, really easy - I totally wanted to speed-up. But my calf didn't feel great even on the first mile, which kept me from doing anything silly early in the marathon.

The next several miles were slightly faster but still felt super-easy. Seemed like I was jogging. For my calf's sake, I kept off the accelerator. I went through the half marathon ~15 seconds ahead of my anticipated pace and it felt like a piece of cake. Felt like I did no work until miles 17-20, when I felt like the tempo picked up a little - but by no means did it feel difficult. My plan was to wait until the final 10K before turning it on, and I felt like I had been beyond patient on the first 20 miles so I was eager to finally run hard. I cranked it up a notch on mile 21 and it felt... CRAPPY! My calf tightened up a little more, I had some minor side-cramps (felt like little jabs in the ribs!), and I was suddenly winded. At least I was picking up the pace - had to be 6-flat per mile or maybe a tad faster. When I heard my watch beep at the end of mile 21 I looked down hoping for 5-something and saw... 6:16!?!? I suddenly felt dazed and confused! I couldn't reconcile the mediocre pace I had just run on mile 21 with how f'ing painful it was! I kept up the same grueling effort on the next mile and ran 10 seconds slower! Noooo! I'm bonking!!! Beginning of the end - I felt like quitting...

I convinced myself to put in another mile if suffering. I latched onto a guy who pulled me to a 6:14 mile on mile 23. Nice to get back near target pace but man, it felt like poop! The rib jabs started feeling stabs! I was convinced that I was drawing blood (couldn't find any). Calf got even tighter. Is this sport really humane??? I totally wanted to walk! I figured I could still salvage a PR if it didn't get any worse, so I made myself suffer for another mile. Mile 24 was 6:28, my slowest split of the day - a full-fledged bonk! My already-ugly running form got even uglier. So darn painful - I really, really wanted to call it a day...

But I figured with only a couple miles to go I could grind it out and still salvage a PR. After another hellish mile (at about the same bonk-pace) I got a pat on the shoulder from a San Diego friend (Sam!), who gave me a word of encouragement as he motored by. Looked like he hadn't run a mile - bouncing along while I was grinding away. It was great to see him running well and I was totally happy for him. But after 10 seconds I didn't give a damn. I was deep in the pain cave and had a mile to go. I started doing the math in my head: if I ran ~6:20-ish on the last mile and had a halfway decent kick, I could still run sub-2:44. I went around the last turn on the course with ~1km to go, saw Brandenburg Gate with the finish line a few hundred meters on the other side, and tried to really throw down the hammer. Felt like the hammer landed on my left calf! It tightened up so bad, felt like a ball! With a half mile to go I just went with it. I accelerated through Brandenburg Gate (btw - really cool place to finish!) and sprinted like the 800m runner that I am all the way to the finish line: 2:43:50, an almost-3min PR. Given my recent calf issues and ultimately my bonk on the last 10K, I'll take it!

After receiving my finisher's medal I walked over and exchanged high-fives with Ankur, Davies, Su-Yang, and Rit. As previously mentioned, Ankur led TCLA and PR'd by ~5 minutes in 2:31 (!!!), SY ran amazing - his 2nd-best marathon time ever on only a couple months of training following a stress fracture in his foot, Davies tried to run a marathon without carbo loading (not recommended!), and Rit definitely ran a solid race after battling foot and calf issues.

Immediately after the marathon we showered then rode bikes around Berlin for the rest of the day (probably rode ~15-20 miles). Turned out to be a great post-marathon recovery ride and a great way to see the city. We then jumped on a sleeper train to Munich and got zero sleep (except SY who can sleep anywhere), where we went to Oktoberfest and rode bicycles around town to see all the sites. Next stop was Amsterdam where we... rode bikes around town! I am amazed at how many bikes there are in Amsterdam and how bike-friendly this city is - definitely the way to get around town.

Sorry for the Stephen Terry-like length of my report. - Bert Whitson