BERLIN Marathon 2012

TD - 1:47 is bloody good considering the temperature and the problems you've had.  At any rate, it's faster than the PB I'm aiming for in a half in a couple of weeks time, and I won't have (I hope) either of those two things to blame my slowness on.  Loving the shirt - it's loud!

Iain - funny, I was at a wedding in Backwell just outside Bristol last week as well.  Had never been to Bristol, it exceeded my expectations.  Everything I'd read said it was full of horrible post-war buildings, but I thought the area round about the cathedral and the harbourside was lovely.  Very relaxed place.

Got up to 4 miles in tempo last night, 31 mins which was fine, got the shivers afterwards though.  A couple of rest days and then a 19 miler I'm dreading on sunday.  Always try to drag a friend out with me on a bike (none of them are runners beyond about a mile) but they are generally too lazy/unreliable/phased by the weather to come out.  I've resorted to pretending I'm presenting a running programme to ease the boredom... (God forbid)

Hi all, did someone mention beer? Some large bars: Brauhaus Mitte nr Large Tower, Brauhaus Lemke nr Hackescher Markt, Golgotha in Viktoriapark, Kreuzberg (if open), The bar in Europa Centre.....................

Blockbuster - if it really is the heel that is hurting, and more towards the underfoot, then yes it would send more like PF. Never had it myself but it is very painful I've heard and troublesome to get rid of. Go cautiously.

Am going to Berlin with a German friend so difficult to commit to any pre or post-race meet ups until i have a better idea if he is planning anything special. LY he was injured but we ended up having a big family meal in someone's house in the city.

Not being able to properly relax and join in with beery celebrations is perhaps one of the most annoying aspects of having to follow a gluten free diet. It seems anti-social to be stood at the end of the bar with your pals and ask for chilled white wine (because very few continental bars serve cider).

On a +ve note, 13.5km for me at lunchtime, in a cool 26C (it's all relative). 1h04 and avg HR was 87%.

TD I'll have to do whatever i can to still run Berlin and then sort it out afterwards!. I'll get myself booked into physion see what he says. But just got my new shoes today, Asics Gel Kayano 18's, maybe they'll help! This P&D schedule means I wore my last pair out way too quickly

TD - are you coeliac or is this a health choice?  I went wheat-free 2 years ago this month for health.  No looking back!  I'm not sure about gluten content of beers but can you have some wheat-free beers?  Do they contain other types of gluten?  Chilled white wine post-marathon sounds dire 

strunner - Coeliac. Found out a couple of years ago. Can't go back. Just a crumb/ drop makes me pretty uncomfortable. You can get rice beers, potatoe beers but the nicest ones are those made from buckwheat. They are quite acceptable but obviously, a very limited range of choices and you never happen to find them on the other side of a bar. I wouldn't ever order a chilled white wine, post-mara or not.

getting to the important details...what's the Berlin equivalent of wetherspoons? cheap food and beer 

TD - not so good.  Never heard of potato beers, will have a look.

Can't wait to get stuck into German food, love it.  Lots of meat, kartoffel and sauerkraut, not to mention massive German sausages.  Following the marathon, I intend to eat until I feel pregnant.

Hi everyone, six weeks to go - Berlin will (hopefully) be my first marathon - I say hopefully due to some frustrating knee/ITB issues that have really put a dent in my training. Do you think it's foolish to attempt this marathon if you haven't been able to get in a training run longer than 23km, 2 months before? I really want to get another long run in but am worried it will completely stuff me up and maybe it's better to 'save the legs' for the main event? I've been swimming and spinning to keep the cardio fitness up and the legs as strong as possible, but not sure it's going to be enough to get me across the finish line. Opinions please?

Hi Margie - cardio fitness gets you to the start line, about 32km into the event. The actual race is just the last 10km. You need plenty of stamina. Your question is really driven by whether you have any time goals in mind and how much suffering you can put up with.

Marathons hurt everybody, even really experienced runners (this will be my 12th start). I am hoping you have been doing lots of ITB stretching exercises? Depending on the severity of the pain, I'd encourage you to try and get 2 or 3 runs in the direction of 30kms before you go to Berlin. But of course, if you are really broken by your pain, that won't work - but not easy to judge from what you've said.

I did a 75k bike ride this morning, cut a bit short by a puncture and will hopefully get out running in the morning nice and early. But so far, I've only managed 21k distance in training. Eek.

Back from a week in the Lakes, weather ok, only rained on Friday so not bad for up there.

Got some cracking runs in, so that's my hill training out of the way

Ran a flat 20 miles along the Middlewood way this morning,nice negative split and sneaked in under 2.30, that was my 6th on the trot

With only 6 weeks to go I'm going to start my track sessions, to get a bit of speed in my legs. 

thanks, guys. TrickyDicky, I initially had a time goal (under 4 hours) but now my goal is to cross the finish line! Lots of stretching and strengthening exercises, couple of physio sessions, and much foam roller-ing, massage, ice... can currently get up to 7km without problems but not much beyond that at this stage. Thanks for your advice re/ getting some longer runs in, will definitley do this if possible. Good luck to you all!

my itb was fine walking or running up to about 1/4 mile then agony, the description of tooth ache in the knee is about right, once I could stretch it though I found my distances increased pretty easy, I moved up to about 5 mile pertty quick and found if I stopped and streched at 5 mile I could carry on no problem 

So, pubs huh.....

Seems a shame to go all the way to one of the greatest brewing nations and sit in an overpriced faux Irish pub doesn't it. I'm guessing everyone will be near the Mitte so how about one of these...

The Brauhaus, Mitte http://www.brauhaus-mitte.de

Brauhaus Georgbraeu, Mitte http://www.georgbraeu.de