BMW Berlin Marathon 2019

World Marathon Majors (WMM) series - Berlin Marathon

3rd marathon

2nd of WMM series after Chicago Marathon in Oct 2017 (4 more to go for me to complete the 6 WMM some day)

Early part of 2019

I'd registered for New Delhi Marathon (NDM) in Feb, read my Sub 4h story here. I continued to clock miles and did longer distances in Jan and Feb as build up for NDM. With NDM done and Berlin Marathon over 6 months away, Shailja Singh (my friend and mentor) asked me to chill and keep clocking base miles as it was early days for targeted Berlin Marathon training. Between Mar - Jun, with a lot of reluctance, I signed up for a few local 10 km races to get some speed in my legs and also continue to keep my legs moving. Signing up for races at times can be the much needed motivation to get out there and train in summer months/off-season, it worked out pretty well for me.

Berlin Marathon training

The targeted training block started from Jun with a 10 km race and 2 slightly challenging half marathon races thrown in to keep me sharp and on my toes. The average monthly volume was about ~330 km for those 4 months leading upto Berlin Marathon with nice mileage ramp up during Jun and Jul, max distance in Aug and a good amount of taper in Sep. Shailja’s training plans are fun to follow and am finally getting used to running more miles, at different times of the day and at different locations in the city depending on my schedule, mood, weather, traffic, etc. I managed to decently run both those Half Marathon races in Pune and Hyderabad on a fairly difficult terrain which was a big confidence booster for Berlin. A 20 mi tempo run 4 weeks before the race (end of August) was pretty crucial for Shailja to ascertain the finish time I should target at Berlin. It was hugely helpful to have Tripati Sahu volunteer to come and pace me during that training run. I was very happy with that run and my confidence of improving my NDM timing at Berlin further increased. The main goal in Sep was not to miss speed work and long runs and most importantly try and remain injury-free and cautious. I did 3 or so 20 milers, a 35 km one weekend, one speedy 20 miler and rest of weekends, long runs were between 13-17 mi. Sometime mid Sep, looking at how my training had gone by, Shailja suggested, I should probably target a finish time of 3:37:00 - 3:39:00 and if I ran harder, maybe, I could cut 3-4 minutes, both of us agreed that there ain’t any particular hurry to improve too much too soon :).

Race week and travel to Berlin

I arrived in Berlin on the Wed before the race Sunday. My flights were delayed and as a result I was completely knackered by the time I got to the hotel. Berlin weather forecast was like English weather, showers and cloudy conditions building up to the race Sunday, not ideal, but nothing can be done about the weather. On hindsight it helped in keeping me rested and locked in the hotel room. I do not know if it was dehydration or journey/jetlag or general fatigue, I had headache all of Thu and most part of Fri that resulted in some forced rest. My planned runs in Berlin were absolutely rubbish, didn’t go as I would have liked them to. Something you would not want 2-3 days before a main race of the year. I started worrying about how my body would respond on the race day. Brojen Singh who was in Berlin to participate in the marathon had seen some of the workouts over the weeks on Garmin Connect and was quite confident I would have a good race, I was not too sure though. Maybe race week jitters, I do not know :). I spent more time staring out of the Hotel room window looking at the depressing rainy weather. By Sat it was obvious runners expect rain during the race.

Race

My corral/wave flag off was 9:25 am. The plan was to show up early esp. to a race where there are 45,000+ runners turning up. I have never run a race or trained after having a proper breakfast, therefore decided to eat light. Before going to the start-line, did a quick 1 km warm-up as weather check around the hotel, carried a big rubbish/trash bag to act as a make shift raincoat if it started to rain in the holding area before flag off. Did another 1/2 mi easy jog and some foot drills in the holding area and was getting anxious for the damn race to start. The weather was perfect, 14/15c, cloudy skies and no rain!

Broadly, the first half came in 1:48:44, 5:09/km and the latter came in 1:50:36, 5:15/km without overly pushing myself. Detailed splits with pace and other details are here ;).

It started to rain about the half way mark, after about an hour of pouring, there were enough puddles on the course to negotiate, runners started to run unruly, trying to negotiate the puddles created with the continuing rain. I decided to consciously slow down fearing I would trip and fall or run into someone.

I didn’t miss hydrating at every aid station, I had gels every 7 km and salt tablets at 20, 30 & 36 km to prevent any muscle cramping. From the start until I crossed the finish line, everything worked out as per plan except arriving at the finish line completely drenched :).

Personally for me, crossing the finish line of a marathon is a special feeling. Lots of emotions cross my mind, a sense of pride & accomplishment and most importantly gratitude that everything worked as per plan.

Closing comments

I can’t thank Shailja Singh enough for this lovely and memorable sub 3:40:00 finish. It has been absolute fun training, running and hanging out with her.

Lastly and most importantly Rashmi, who makes enough sacrifices for my sake. I wonder if I deserve all the pampering and support!

I would want to go back to Berlin and race again!