The day had come - my second time doing the Berlin Marathon, and Carmen’s second World Marathon Major. I think it would be fair to say that training for today had been difficult with multiple sustained heatwaves during the summer that made long runs hard, and any sort of speed work felt impossible. We’d taken the need to do long runs as an opportunity to not just run along the Grand Union Canal to Paddington as we had done before, but to also go the other way to Uxbridge to try something new. Once past the half way point in training, we did however get some reasonable long runs in. The last two weeks hadn’t gone quite how I thought they would, for reasons I won’t go into.

I woke up this morning feeling completely underprepared for the task ahead, but still confident I’d finish the marathon despite that. I started off with granola for breakfast, and we both got ready for the race that lay before us. When the time came, I headed down to the U-Bahn at Wittenbergplatz station, and took the train from there to Berlin’s main train station. This made it a short walk across the River Spree to the Bundestag, and the race village. Carmen would make her own way about an hour later, due to the difference in start times.

After a while I started to feel cold waiting around the race village - the toilet queues hadn’t been as bad as they’d been for the half, so I had more time to spare. I left it until 08:45 to drop my bag off, and around that time it’d warmed up enough there to be easier to cope with. Carmen had just arrived in the race village, but I didn’t have time to find her - I had to head to the ‘E’ start pen. A couple of runners felt self-entitled enough that they were insisting to marshals they could go into pen ‘D’ despite the ‘E’ on their bibs.

I stood around in the pen, and realised that my feet felt tired. I started to wonder how badly this race would go if they felt like that now. Music was blasting out along Bundesstraße 2, one I quickly recognised as being an electronic version of Dido’s ‘Thank You’. I’m actually going to do this again. My thoughts were part reassurance, part disbelief I was back here.

09:05. What looked like fireworks were set off from the start gantry ahead as the race had begun. It took about ten minutes of shuffling forward before I crossed the start line, and began running towards the Siegessäule. It was so much busier than I remembered, there was very little space to manoeuvre and my pace was being restricted by those around me. It was, however, a good way to make sure I didn’t set off too fast. Maybe that’s what it’s normally like when you start further back.

I remembered that the course turns right at some point after the column, so when the crowds of runners split either side, I stuck to the right. What I didn’t remember though was just how far it actually was to that right turn, and that it was actually a small hill. At some point, I forgot my feet had felt tired. I think the route is not the most scenic, and spends a lot of time in parts of the cities where tourists would not normally travel. I guess that’s similar to most of the first half of the London Marathon really.

Oh! This is near where I stayed in 2021, I thought to myself. I realised at a little over six miles that I was near Hackescher Markt and Alexanderplatz, so I looked around for the TV Tower, and was a little confused that I couldn’t see it. It’s not like it’s small - it can be seen from miles away! I wondered at first if I’d been mistaken about where I was., although perhaps I was too close to it though, as once I rounded the next corner, there it was straight ahead.

For the first nine miles I was pretty consistent - around 20-30 seconds per mile slower than I ideally wanted. All this time, the course had been so busy, with very small periods where I’d been able to find some space and move at a pace a little more comfortable. I realised Carmen would be starting any minute, so I thought I might get an alert on my watch from the Berlin Marathon app, but it continued only to report on my own progress as I crossed timing mats.

At every water station so far I’d been able to slow down, and take a cup of water. They were quite full though, so I found it easier to empty a little before squeezing the top of the cup together before drinking. I didn’t really think about much other than my immediate surroundings, and the miles ticked by.

I happened to glance at one of the U-Bahn stations as I passed it and saw ‘Hermannplatz’. That name sounded incredibly familiar, but I couldn’t figure out why. Moments later, I saw to my left a structure that also looked familiar. I was sure it was the Shri Ganesh Hindu temple that we’d passed last year on our way into Hasenheide. When I saw the entrance to the park, I was pretty certain I was correct, but seeing a sign to some parking for Hasenheide Park confirmed it.

I knew at this point I was somewhere near Templehof, but unsure about anything else. Once I’d passed Gleisdreieck Park, it felt like I was fairly close to the hotel since the station is a few before ours; but I was only just approaching the half way mark. After this point the places where the course opened up to give me more space became more frequent, and for longer periods of time, but it remained busy. I didn’t really take advantage of the gaps either. I also knew Carmen had definitely started by now.

When I reached Schildhornstraße, I decided it was finally time to take a walking break, at close to 17 miles in. From that point on my strategy was to walk a part of each kilometre, and to try and make it to the next sign once I’d already walked some of it.

For the second time I saw a runner going the wrong way, weaving dangerously through oncoming runners, back round the course. He’d got a race bib on so was definitely part of the race. I wondered what was going on, maybe they’d dropped something, or maybe they were going back to the nearest marshal for help. I’d briefly considered asking if they were okay, when they got near to me, but instead they’d turned back round, and started running in the correct direction as they spoke into a camera as they went. Seriously?! Sure other people were out using cameras as they ran, but this one and the one previous had put other runners at risk for content. The crowds were strong throughout the course, and there were so many places with music playing, quite a few had live bands playing too. I was I think maybe around 19.5 miles in when I was unsure of what I’d seen.

That looks a little like… no it can’t be... Whoever they were, they were belting out Robbie Williams’ ‘She’s the One’ whilst being a very good soundalike at least. Carmen later commented that he was in videos for the opening ceremony on Friday night. It did make me wonder if it actually had been him, but I can be pretty sure it wasn’t.

I was keeping an eye out now for the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church, knowing it would signal the beginning of the end for this race. Strangely, after passing it, this is when my average pace dropped more from taking more walking breaks. I passed the ibis we were staying in, and then shortly after had to come to a complete stop as the road had been blocked off so that a fire engine could pass.

Once I reached the end of the road, I knew from this point the course would have several turns before reaching Unter den Linden. When I got to a section of road where it splits, I recognised it from the half marathon. There had barely been any stretch of road without spectators lining it. At one point around here though, the spectators were too numerous as they were standing on the blue line that runners use as the optimal running route. I’d not stuck to the line myself, it was too busy to, I’d just been running where there was space.

After mile 25, this was when the course started to turn more as it twisted closer and closer to the finishing straight. I recognised buildings from before, such as the concert hall, and knew I was just minutes away.I started to walk again, but as I rounded a corner I realised this was Unter den Linden, and the Brandenburg Gate was ahead. Last time I’d done the marathon I’d misjudged the distance to the finish from here and had sped up too soon. This time I wasn’t going to make the same mistake, but I did get running again, and tried to keep it to a steady pace.

The temptation to sprint was high, but I held off until my feet touched the blue mat, and then I sped up continuously until I crossed the line in 3:47:46. That really was a slow marathon, and a sign I might still be getting slower. It had however been a very warm day - unusually for me I’d risked getting wet feet by running under the many jets of water that they’d had on the course, and had drunk some water at all but two of the water stations. It was still getting warmer, and Carmen was still out there. Somewhere.

They handed me a medal first, and a bit later on I was able to get some water. There was a woman on a stretcher just past that, she looked unconscious. One of two guys that were talking to each other just ahead of me randomly patted her on her left breast as he walked past, without slowing down. It took me a few seconds to register what had happened, and in that time he was gone, and a medic was heading back to the stretcher. If I’d reacted sooner, I hoped I would have said something to him but I imagine a language barrier could have been a problem.

I found the goodie bags eventually, which contained a large bar of chocolate, a banana, a carton of water, some pretzels, and some sort of crispy chocolate snack. I later found out that Carmen’s one also had a croissant, and an orange stamped with one of the sponsor names - so there was some variation in the bags. Once I’d collected my drop bag I walked slowly to the metal engraving, and got that done quickly.

I’d got a while to wait for Carmen to finish due to our different start times, so I was in no rush to do anything, so sat down on the floor beside the Reichstag for a while, though my legs felt worse after that pause. Once I got going again they only improved once I reached Curry Wolf where I got a Currywurst, fries, and a bottle of sprite for €12. As I stood around eating it, I was asked a few times about the race. When I finished my legs felt better too - likely from the salt.

I found a spot just after the final corner and waited for Carmen. She’d not long passed thirty kilometres and it looked like she might be struggling. When I saw her tracker stop for at least five minutes at forty kilometres I knew there were two possibilities: she’d had an issue and had to stop, or the tracker was playing up. Fortunately it was the latter as I eventually saw it move again.

I know that intro, I thought as the next track started blasting out of the speakers on the corner. “Ra-Ra-Rasuputin.” Yep, there it was - some Boney M. Surprisingly one runner started running with his arms folded as if he was doing the Prisiadki move from a number of Russian dances. All I could think of was The Master in Doctor Who.

I helped someone who was waiting for someone too, understand where they were on the map. They were very grateful for the help. Minutes later I saw Carmen, and shouted, but she didn’t hear me, so I thought I’d go meet her in the race village. Although we’d got a planned meeting point near the station, I knew her race number, so I knew where she’d be going to collect her bag. There was a chance I could walk there faster than she would as I knew the traffic was slow-moving after the finish.

I tried the wrong entrance to start with so had to go to another to be let back into the race village. Not long after I found her bag drop, I saw Carmen walking towards it. She’d not felt well after halfway, and struggled on despite it. She’d done brilliantly though and had completed her first ever international marathon, and her second of the World Marathon Majors.

We made our way to the main train station, and took that back to the Zoological station, where we could then take the 100 bus to the end of the road the hotel is on. It was a short ride, but it’d save our legs a little. From that point, recovery could begin. It was lucky the hotel had a lift instead of needing to walk up six flights of stairs, but a shame it didn’t have a bath.

In the evening I spent a while looking at food options; Carmen liked the idea of German food but we obviously didn’t want to go far. Some nearby places were closed due to it being Sunday, but Restaurant Elefant was open and looked okay.

It took about ten minutes to walk there, in the LGBTQIA+ part of town. It made sense why the pride cheer station was where it was now. The restaurant was relatively busy, but fortunately they had a spare table. We both had roast pork with dumplings and sauerkraut. Our meals together came to €45.60, but tasted good.

Despite the marathon, my legs felt good for the walk back to the ibis.