Berlin Marathon 2020 - Sunday 27th of September, 2020 - Adelaide, Australia
The Journey
In December 2019, I was busy trying to gain an entry into the 2020 Berlin Marathon. The ballot had been drawn in November/December and I was not successful in receiving one of those places. Instead, I was trying my best to secure a place via a travel agent. Unfortunately, a lot of other people had also decided to do the same thing.
I put my name onto 3 waiting lists to be contacted if someone decided to cancel their entry. Finally, in mid-February, I was emailed by one of the travel agents who advised there was a place available if I wanted it.
I took the opportunity and paid my deposit. Finally I was in.
Marie (my German girlfriend) and her family, as well as a number of my family members were all waiting on this news in order to book their trips to Berlin/Germany around the Berlin Marathon Event.
At the time, COVID-19 wasn't a huge worry, but by chance none of us ended up committing to any flights or accommodation (other than what was included in my marathon package).
As time progressed, the doubt around whether or not the marathon would proceed in September or not. We all decided not to book anything until there was more certainty around whether or not it would proceed.
On the 24th of June, 2020 the Berlin Marathon was officially cancelled. While I had assumed this was going to be the case for a while, it meant that I no longer had an event that I was aiming for which I do like to feed off when it comes to training.
The thought of running a marathon on the 27th of September regardless did cross my mind a number of times over the next couple of months, but I never committed to it and therefore never trained specifically for a marathon.
In mid-August however, I noticed that Dementia Australia were running a fundraiser called Marathon to Remember. Participants could choose from 21.1km, 42.4km or 60km distances to raise money to help support people dealing with dementia.
I had seen this advertised a number of times, and the thought did cross my mind that it would be quite nice to tie into such an important cause, and one that I have a connection to with running (or missing out on running) the Berlin Marathon in 2020.
My grandfather on my dad's side of the family suffered with Alzheimer's Disease for a number of years before passing away in 2012. While it has been a number of years now since he passed, our family has committed to quite a number of fundraising events arranged by Dementia Australia. I somehow managed to win the first instalment of the Memory Walk and Jog in 2016 and have since tried to reclaim that title. But more importantly, running in that event, and raising funds and awareness of the disease, helps those currently struggling with dementia as well as the families that are dealing with a loved one that is suffering from the disease.
Despite thinking about signing up and running, it still took one of my lovely aunties to comment on a post that this fundraiser had my name written all over it for me to take the leap and commit to fundraising, and of course commit to running a marathon.
I signed up and by the end of that same day I had already raised $350 - with 6 weeks to go from there until my planned marathon date, I knew I would have the support of those around me.
The Training
That weekend I had already been on a (split) 25km run (I stopped for breakfast halfway) so I figured my training was sort of on track for the event in 6 weeks anyway.
The following weekend I ran a flat 27km at what I thought was a decent pace for my marathon. I was wrong. My pace was around 5:00min/km, but by the time I reached the 22nd kilometre, I was struggling big time.
The fact that I could only keep this pace for HALF a marathon concerned me, but while this messed with my mindset a little, I knew I still had a few weeks of training to go, and would be better rested before the marathon anyway.
During the week I did a few smaller runs (5-10km) before a 34km run on the 29th of August. Having learnt from the previous weekend, I went out with a 5:40min/km goal in mind - this plan paid off while I was running downhill or flat, but the last 3km with a slight uphill back home was a bit more of a struggle!
This pace works out to be just under 4 hours for a marathon - so, I decided that 4 hours would be my goal. This was slower than my previous marathon efforts (3:39:49 and 3:19:35) but given that I hadn't been focusing on marathon training specifically, I thought 4 hours would be a pretty good target.
It was time to taper my training from there to let my body rest for the marathon, the following weekend I would do 23km with a few more kilometres of running throughout the week. The 2 weeks prior to the marathon I managed a total of around 10km which meant my body was feeling quite good at that point.
I had experienced a few issues with my upper back which had made running a bit uncomfortable since about April. Being me, I decided that it was about time I went to the physio 2 weeks before my marathon. It wasn't a huge issue, just uncomfortable. I saw the physio twice in the two weeks before the marathon, we both hoped that it fixed something, but didn't un-fix anything else.
I mentioned my 4 hour goal to the physio who (having run a marathon himself in the past) agreed that was a realistic goal. What I didn't tell him was that I was secretly considering going for 3 hours 30 minutes instead... I knew he would not likely approve.
I figured I had run a marathon faster than that in the past, and I can maintain the required 5:00min/km pace for a while, I might as well give it a whirl. I did consult a couple of other trusted sources on my goal pace, they (rightly so) were a little more conservative than me and gave me a 3 hour 40 or 45min goal instead.
The day before the marathon I had a good carb loading plan prepared by my New York 2019 Marathon running buddy who was living vicariously through me this marathon. It was a lot of food, but I got through it ready for the big day to follow.
The Marathon
I was up at 6:50am the morning of the run to make sure I had time to eat (and digest) the 4 Weet-Bix I planned for the morning. I headed to Victoria Park on the bike, a 3-4km bike ride which I figured would be a good warm up.
The course I chose around Victoria Park was about 4.5km meaning I would need to do 9 and half laps to complete 42.2km.
I had asked a number of people if they were interested in joining me for a couple of laps. A fantastic group of people who often organise a run on a Sunday morning joined me at 8am for the start. Dad was also there with an air horn to start just to add to the excitement!
It was very nice to start the marathon with about 10 others who had all run marathons before - it made it feel more like a "real" or organised marathon event. I also had two supporters who made the early effort to be there in Dad and Tahia!
With a pace of 5:00min/km in mind, I managed to run the first 200m at about 4:15min/km (a mistake I made last year in New York for about 15km...) before bringing it back to the correct pace. I lost a lot of the starting group behind me as they were not racing as such, but was joined for a full lap by 2 that did keep up with me.
I ran the second lap alone as one of my first lap runners was suffering an injury and needed a break, although Dad joined me on his bike to provide support and my first lot of water/Powerade and food.
Lap 3 started again with the same few runners from the first lap, and early in that lap I was also joined by Tristan who had already been out for an 8km run on his own.
At this point of about 11km in I was feeling pretty good and was keeping just below my 5:00min/km goal pace - perfect!
Tristan joined me for laps 3 and 4 which we managed to keep consistently just under 5:00min/km. Dad decided to pop up along the way on his bike to provide water/Powerade when needed.
Mum arrived on her bike to join me and to again carry some sustenance for me. It was very handy to have someone carry my drinks and pass me food bags when I felt like having something (or needed to get something into my body at least!). We passed the 21.1km mark - half way there and well on track for my goal time.
At the end of the 5th lap, Steph (and her mum, Deb) joined me around the race track. Deb kept with us for a little while before leaving us to head out onto my 6th lap.
It was clearly late enough in the morning now that people had started to get out of bed. As I approached the end of my 6th lap, I could see a large crowd of friends and family gathered where I had started my run.
Michelle and my Uncle Peter joined me on her bike for the 7th lap, while I was also joined by Will and Jonno on foot! Steph was also still there. Jonno kept up for as long as he could (about 1km which was impressive!). He then took some shortcuts to try to catch back up but got lost...
Steph made the comment that it was like I was Eliud Kipchoge who holds the marathon world record (of just over 2 hours!). While it is nice to think I was running that fast, she was actually referring to the "Breaking 2" challenge where he had a number of people running around him. It really did feel a bit like that, every lap someone would join me while I would never break pace to let them in. Everyone had to start their run immediately at my pace to join. It is hard to describe in words but it really was quite a cool and surreal experience.
Will was originally only planning to join me for just 1 lap, but at the end of lap 7 he decided he was feeling alright, and kept going!
At this point, I should probably explain that for about 30km of the run, while someone was running with me I was keeping up with general conversation. Not a huge amount as those running with me respected that I was going to need the energy at the end - but casual conversation with the person I was running with was comfortable, and quite natural.
This casual conversation also made each lap go by very quickly, and took my mind off of other things. Over the course of 3-4 hours of running, your body goes through quite a bit, and if you are in your own head there is a lot of opportunity for your mind to wander into places that are unhelpful. Ideas such as how far is left to run, pain in your legs (or most of the rest of your body) start to be accentuated.
Having someone to talk to makes it easy to take your mind off, or completely forget about most of those signals that your mind is sending you.
At the start of lap 8 (32km completed) I was still averaging under 5:00min/km. 32-35km however is the typical place where a marathon runner will "hit the wall" - and I hit the wall.
Last year in New York, I hit the wall very, very hard. This year thankfully it wasn't as bad. I stopped talking as much. Will was still running with me and Michelle was with me on the bike. Great to have that company with me to keep me going.
My body started hurting, my legs felt heavy and I was in my head. While it probably would have benefited to have someone talking to me, that was the last thing I felt like. Steph had left me at the end of lap 7 and told me "keep eating and drinking". This was playing in my head as well. I knew she was right, but I did not feel like eating or drinking anything at all.
If I had taken her advice, perhaps I would have run a little faster towards the end - but this is the kind of battle you have with yourself on the course. It is easy to sit here and reflect on that mistake, but I know at the time I was battling hard to try to convince myself to eat - but I lost.
The next 4km were run between 5:08min/km and 5:22min/km. Progressively slower. I dreaded the slight uphill (maybe about 0.5m of elevation over 500m?)
The last lap arrived. Will asked if I wanted him to join me - I gave him a thumbs up because speaking was becoming less of an option. Dad, Mum, Jonno and Michelle joined me on their bikes.
With the pace dropping with every kilometre, I was telling myself this is the last lap, this is the last full loop you have to do. A large stick got caught in my shoelaces, and that almost broke me. It took what felt like a minute to dislodge (it was probably 3-5 seconds) and then it gave me a good whack on the way out.
This is a good description of where I was at mentally - a stick almost ruined my whole marathon...
Halfway around we ran into David who had been searching for us. He tried his best to keep up as well and was pretty pleased with himself that he was only a little behind for half of the lap.
I came into the criterium circuit with 3km to go. By this point I was at 5:30min/km and just wanted to finish. I did 2 laps of the circuit (5:43min/km and 5:57min/km) and took in the cheers from a 15 person strong group of friends and family - and then the strange looks from strangers in and around the grandstand area who heard the racket, but had no idea what it was about.
I am sure it was obvious to my cheer squad that at this point I was struggling. I had acknowledged them at just about every lap prior to this, but at this point I was so deep within my own head and just wanted to finish, that I most likely just focused on the road in front of me.
I was determined to finish where my support crew were located. This took a little bit of maths. With 600m to go, I turned around and ran in the opposite direction. This confused everyone - even those that were running/riding beside me. I crossed the "finish line" in front of the grandstand but still had 200m to run! My supporters had moved to the line but I ran past them!
Suddenly I had just about everyone running with me pushing me forward and we all finished the marathon together! My final time was 3:34:04.
I have to say, if I run another major marathon in the future I will miss the joy of running that last 200m and finishing with family and friends around me the most. The finish line at the New York Marathon (and I am sure many other major marathons) is such a strange feeling. No one you know is around you - you just finish in your own thoughts with hundreds of strangers doing the same thing around you.
Dad called Marie in Germany who I sort of realised was on the phone (she stayed up between 1am and 5am for regular updates from dad each lap). I was in a bit of a daze and tried to tell her how I was feeling but was still sort of in my own head, and talking on the phone was not easy.
I called her about 10 minutes later but then had to hang up after a few minutes because I couldn't hold my arm up to my ear!
My legs were getting tighter but it didn't matter anymore - the marathon was done and it is definitely comparable to the joy of completing my first marathon in New York - even if it is in little old Adelaide.
Recovery
I managed to ride the bike back home (3km) and again into and from work the next day. I was fairly sore until about Wednesday and went for a very small jog (2km) on Thursday. We will see how quickly I can get myself motivated to get back to running longer distances than that. Perhaps next week?
Previously I have been very unmotivated to run following a marathon, but I am quite eager to run another marathon in early 2021 so no time to lose - keep running!
Thanks
Thank you to everyone who donated to Dementia Australia as part of this event. At the beginning of the marathon I had raised around $1800. That is a very generous effort from everyone for only 6 weeks of fundraising.
To everyone that came out on the day and ran with me or cheered your guts out each time I passed by, that made for such a memorable experience and I would run a marathon again tomorrow to experience that support.
A few people messaged me in the days afterwards to say that I inspired them, and in some cases inspired them to go for a run. This is why I run - to bring people together and to inspire you to be the best you. To be told that I inspired someone is very humbling.
I don't want to name too many more names because I am bound to miss someone - but Ange and her members at EFM Burnside are amazing and continue to support me to run and run and run and run.
If anyone is interested in donating to Dementia Australia, you can do so at the following link until about December 2020
https://fundraising.dementia.org.au/fundraisers/nickedwards
Thanks everyone - see you at the next marathon!
Nick
