Just back from Berlin this evening. TIme to give my race report then...
First off, you may remember that I was a little concerned about my start pen issue, as I had been stuck in pen H, along with all the other first-timers, and anyone with a previous time of over 4:30. This was clearly likely to be a major issue, but I lucked out at the Expo - after I picked up my number, there was a desk marked 'wrong starting pen', with a long queue (some of whom, I know for a fact, had no idea what they were queuing for, but had joined the queue to find out). I waited patiently, thrust some previous half marathon results under his nose, and he stuck a sticker on my number that upgraded me to pen B (2:40-2:50). I don't know if he was supposed to, or whether (more likely) he was just trying to get rid of me in view of the queue. Anyway, it put my mind at rest.
Tried to minimise the sightseeing and wandering around in the 2 days beforehand, but probably did too much. That was always going to be a balancing act, but I'd long wanted to see Berlin, so what can you do.
At the gun, the pen upgrade meant there was very little traffic, and I managed to get into a rhythm quite quickly. Plan was 3:59 per km for 2:48, and went through 5k only a couple of seconds off target pace, so felt pleased that I hadn't shot out of the blocks like a moron. Felt good, but maybe in hindsight squeezed the pace a little much to go through 10K in 39:39, necking my first gel in the process.
The next 5K was again done at a few seconds quicker than target pace, but tried to rein it in a little over the next 5K, back to target pace. Got chatting to a bloke from Eastleigh, who I spent much of the rest of the race running alongside/ leapfrogging, and was pleased to be able to chatter away at the 20K mark. Went trhough halfway in 1:23:33.
To be honest, I remember very little of the next 10K. It all felt so easy, almost too easy. The splits show that I was almost perfectly on pace up to this point. This made me confident, maybe even cocky, and I picked up the pace around 30-31 K, spurred on by seeing my wife, and suddenly seemed to be overtaking almost everyone. However, the confidence didn't last too much longer, and by 35K (still on target pace) the remaining 7K suddenly seemed like a long way away. Along Kurfuerstendamm, a band was playing outside a pub, and, as I approached, they ended their song by playing slower and slower, and I felt myself slowing in time with the music. B*stards!
The bottom line is that somewhere between 35 and 37K the wheels started to fall off. Although the breathing and everything felt fine, my legs just didn't want to play ball anymore. Kept a lid on it to an extent until the 40K point, but those last 2K were a mix of jogging and pushing as hard as I could, with what seemed like most of the field coming past, knowing that sub 2:50 was gone. Seeing the Brandenburg Gate almost inspired me to a sprint finish, but that lasted about 3 strides before reality took over. Crossed the line in 2:50:52. 495th, according to the results.
So, a little bit off target. But, 3 minutes in the context of all the things that can go wrong in a debut marathon hardly constitutes a disaster. So, all in all, I'm pleased, and won't be doing a massive post-mortem on it. Having got a solid sub-3 under my belt, I will run quicker marathons yet.
Spent the afternoon lying in my hotel room watching crap German TV. They had one programme which appeared to be home-video quality footage of old folks dancing to an equally elderly swing band, of below wedding entertainment quality. It went on for half an hour. Mental.
Well done to all on y
