Berlin Marathon, 29 Sep 2024

En route to completing the (ever growing list of) marathon majors in under 3 hours, I completed Berlin Marathon at the end of September.

My aim for this was to run under 3 hours. My aspirations to keep getting pb’s in marathons have been put on hold whilst training for triathlon. Or is that my excuse for getting older and slower?

My run training has massively decreased in the past year, from an average of 80k/week to 40k/week so I was not at all confident that I could achieve this goal. 

I have learned that in training I tend to run very slowly (even if I try to run fast intervals) but somehow on race day - perhaps the taper/ fuelling/ adrenaline/ later start time? I can maintain a pace that I would struggle to maintain for 10 minutes when training.

The move to Denmark a week before this race had taken priority in my head so I wasn’t too nervous or putting much pressure on myself before this race. Fortunately, I also had my partner, Joe, planning to run this at a similar non-pb pace. The race was huge, the highest number of participants ever, and it seemed every other person in Berlin was wearing Berlin/adidas branded running kit and carbon shoes.

Starting about 3 minutes after the 3hr pacers, the aim was to keep them in our sights and overtake them if possible. Running with Joe was great as I often set off too fast and run progressive splits, clinging on to my form after 30k. In this race, we just ran a consistent pace around 4.10min/km the whole way and overtook the 3hr pacers at about 30k. I fuelled at all but one feed station and I enjoyed the last few km and running through Brandenburg gate. Perhaps I could have gone slightly faster? I don’t feel it matters as I achieved my goal and I didn’t get injured so I can get back into triathlon training shortly. Running the whole marathon together made it feel doubly rewarding, like a team effort.

Becky Wright