It has been a few months since I ran the Berlin Marathon 2024. I did achieve a PR of 3 hours and 16 mins, thereabout. It was about a 7 minute improvement over my previous best in the Amsterdam Marathon 2023 (3 hr:23 min). However, I was left with a deep sense of dissatisfaction. Weird, right?
In this post, I am going to list out my learnings from the Berlin race and also list out why others in my experience were better.
1. Rushed Expo experience
Usually in all expos, my wife and I prefer to enjoy the atmosphere, take pictures, create memories for ourselves and hunt for deals as well. In Berlin, there was hardly any room for us to pause and watch. At one point in time I stopped in front of a stall and a lady bumped into me and shrieked at me, "What's you problem man?"
Well, she could have seen me stopping and diverted her tracks as well, but the fact that she didn't see me stop meant she was probably in a rush too. Everyone was in a kind of a rush.
Well, there was too much of a crowd really for anyone to stand and stare at anything at all.
So, yes, we did NOT enjoy the expo experience. We ended up walking out from the expo at the first sight of the exit we found.
Compared to Berlin, I would say we really loved the Rome Marathon expo. Culturally rich and a fun experience. Even Amsterdam Marathon expo was beautiful. We loved all the places they had set up for taking photos and creating memories.
2. Poorly separated corals during the race
The organizers should try and get the participants segregated according to their past timings. It is a huge race with over 50k participants. I started in a coral with some of the slower finishers.
I have no problem if it is like 5 or 10 minutes less or more than mine. I mean, I respect that, and besides we all do have bad days, and might have been able to run faster otherwise. But there were some really slow people ahead of me in the race and I spent a good first half of the race overtaking them, zigzagging all along the way.
To give you a sense, I finished 3h:16m, while I know someone who finished barely under 4 hours was way ahead of me and it was apparently his Personal best. I am sure there were plenty of them with similar stories.
One might say it is ok; the race is for everyone; you should have the spirit of running and what not. But it is absolutely frustrating during the race when the path is blocked by walls and walls of slow runners.
3. Poor sleep leading up to the race due to Maranoia
Over the years of running, I have realized that this is something so critical. Usually due to the nerves, the night before the race is quite sleepless. But in this case, Berlin was big for me. It was my first World Marathon Major.
I was restless and suffered severe Maranoia (marathon paranoia is what it means I think) for more than a week.
Right from the taper period, sleep at night was a hit or a miss. I think I barely had 4 hours of continuous sleep per night in the week leading up to the marathon.
By the time the big day had arrived, I had reached a zombie like state. I think it did affect my performance and mood eventually during the race.
I know Berlin can't be blamed for this. It was my own incapability to handle the pressure that lead to my downfall. I will strengthen myself better mentally for my next big race.
4. In-race experiences
In most of the races I had participated in before in Europe, I have had very nice experiences, either from the crowd support, or the entertainment enroute, or even from the fellow runners.
For example, if I were shooting a video while running, I met people who huddled close and waved at my camera while I was shooting a selfie, or they came and started a casual short conversation. In Berlin, people weren't so warm. Maybe they were aiming for their personal best as well and focusing on that. Whatever it was, it was clear to me that runners around me were not having much fun.
Besides, I did see some runners curse and swear at others around them, which has never happened around me in other races. But anyway, maybe I missed that in the other places.
The entertainment as well was not the best. I think I enjoyed Amsterdam best in that case. With the water shows and the windmills and the bands: Amsterdam was downright beautiful. Rome was historic and fun. Berlin?
Well, Berlin was just a world marathon major to me. I don't have any scenes from the race where I was happy or laughing. In other races, I had plenty of such experiences.
In conclusion, Berlin was a fast course and I did run faster than I ever ran before. I never hit the wall, and it was an extremely well managed negative split for me. 7 minute PR seemed like a cakewalk. But in terms of memories, unfortunately, I remember a lot of marathons fondly, but Berlin will not make that list at the top. On the contrary, as of the 7 marathons I ran in, Berlin is currently the 7th.
I know I have been a drab in this post. But this is an extremely personal post. I know also for a fact that others loved the Berlin experience. So many people cracked their personal bests, it is amazing!
I mean, this is where Kipchoge put the world record up twice. So, for me, I will remember Berlin for Kipchoge's race, but not for my own!
If you want to delve into my Youtube video on the Berlin Marathon Lessons learned, the link is below.
If you want to see a review of the marathon arrangements in the race recap, I made another video on that:
And finally if you are participating in Berlin marathon in the future and want to practice on a treadmill, here's a virtual treadmill race video I made from within the race.
Hope you do enjoy the videos. For more such, please hit the like and subscribe button for my Youtube channel!
Comments
Post a Comment