Berlin Marathon 2024 Race Recap

devadmin October 6, 2024

0 1 6 minutes read

There’s a chance that after 15 marathons that I have become a little too relaxed about things, and make interesting decisions…like wearing new shoes on race day, or testing our beetroot loading for the first time.

One of those things turned out to be a good decision.

The other did not.

I plan to do a full review of the Adidas Adizero EVO SL trainers I wore on race day but spoiler alert, I really liked them (although they didn’t have a lot of grip on wet road). And the beetroot/nitrate loading (spoiler alert, don’t do what I did and make sure to test them before race day!)

Listen to the Cook Eat Run podcast debrief with Lillie Bleasdale

I was running Berlin Marathon with Westin and so happy to be on the race course this year after cheering last year. I’ve run Berlin once before in 2014 and it stood as my PB at 3.49 for a long while. I honestly don’t remember much of that race because I was so focused on a sub 4 finish so my main goals this year was to look up, take it in and have fun.

Race morning started with a coffee and Rice Krispie square in bed (if you’ve ever stayed at a Westin before you know that the Heavenly beds are hard to get out of!) before borrowing bikes from the hotel and cycling to drop my bottles off. Every runner in the Berlin Marathon is allowed their own bottles on the course, you just need to have them labelled with your name, bib number and the KM marker you want it left at. These need to be dropped off at a special van on race morning between 7-7.45am. Check out my Reel for how this worked in reality.

Luckily staying at the Westin Grand Berlin so close to the start line meant I could easily drop off my bottles and cycle back for breakfast.

I may have been a little too relaxed and didn’t anticipate the start area to be as chaotic as it was (the expo was also carnage with crazy lines to get in and to buy your race merch – so much for German efficiency as everyone kept joking!) The queues for the loos in the race village were over an hour (having now re-read my race recap from 2014 I realise I probably should have read it before race day and anticipated this!) and so I didn’t have a chance to do my usual two bathroom pre-race pitstop. I also nearly missed my start wave because the gap to get to the corrals was so small that it was causing major backlogs so people were trying to jump the fence (I actually did this back in 2014 but this year the race volunteers were threatening disqualification for those jumping the barriers so I didn’t risk it!)

The gun went off and I planned to run on feel and try to find Thomas and Aubrey from Believe in the Run who I’d seen start ahead of me. I knew their goal was around a 4.30 finish so depending on my pacing, I might catch up with them (spoiler alert – i didn’t find them and ended up running the whole race solo but they had a cracking day for Aubrey’s first marathon!)

About a mile in I pulled off to the side to adjust my sock, already feeling a pressure point in my shoes and wondering if I’d made a huge mistake wearing brand new shoes. Thankfully redoing my sock seemed to fix the problem and I didn’t think about my shoes again during the race!

The first few miles ticked by pretty quickly, I feel like I spent most. of them telling myself to slow down when I saw 9.XX pace, thinking that maybe I should be running 10+ min miles based on my easy runs in training. I knew my friend Tash (who had come out to help me with content) would be at 7 miles – apparently my tracker wasn’t working so it was a bit of a surprise to her when I ran past shouting her name.

I highly recommend agreeing with your spectators ahead of time where they are going to be and on what side of the road. It makes it much easier for you. to spot each other. My mum usually brings a helium balloon with her when she can and wears a bright pink coat.

Before starting the race I knew I would probably need to use the loo on course. Remember those really long queues in the start village – well, think about how many people were using them and imagine the smell (sorry if you’re eating!) The loo I went into had no loo roll and my eyes started to water/I started retching as soon as I closed the door, so I peed as quickly as I could and jumped right back out. A combo of no last minute toilet stop and nitrate loading meant that a mile 11 loo break was very much needed.

KM 20 was my first on course hydration bottle and where I’d planned to see Tash again. The personal drinks stops were actually pretty easy to navigate, with usually 3 tables of bottles in no particular order. I wasn’t running fast enough not to spot mine but I do know people have missed theirs entirely before. Its worth getting a very distinctive bottle and decorating it with a flag or something obvious if you did want to use them for a PB attempt.

My splits were pretty even at each 5K checkpoint and I tried to focus on those tracking me at home getting little updates of how I was doing. This is one of the first races I’ve run kind of solo without close friends or my mum (who is going through breast cancer treatment currently) and rather than thinking about how sad I was that she wasn’t there, I focused on how lucky I am that she has supported me at so many races. When things got tough, I thought about how strong she’s been during the past six gruelling months of treatment.

I found my bottles at KM 25 and 30 as well as taking water from most of the on course water stations. Aside from the chaos of the race village and expo, the race itself is incredibly well organised and I found the water stops easy to navigate with plenty of recycling bins for. your plastic cups (they are harder to fold and drink on the go than paper cups unfortunately).

Race maths told me I might be able to squeak under 4.10 if I picked up the pace in the final few KMs. Whilst I didn’t have close friends on course, I did know I’d see the Westin team at KM 41 and saw a number of other running mates on the route which really raised my spirits. I did also at points think about how some of. my speedy friends were already done and probably on their way to Tracksmith to pick up a poster!

I think I got a little over excited seeing friends in quick succession in KM 40-41 and nearly gave myself a stitch sprinting over to Olympia just before the Brandenburg gate! She and I met during a Westin run on Global Running Day in in 2022 and have since seen each other in Berlin & Barcelona – I love the connections you make through running and IG.

The final push felt like an all out sprint and Stava data tells me it was my fastest mile of the race but my mental maths was just off and I crossed in 4.11.04.

And burst into tears.

Oh and I”m not talking about a few glistening tears on my cheeks.

Proper sobbing to have got through the race, the training, the hardest six months of my life because of what was happening to those around me.

Thank you to the runner who asked if I was ok, suggested we go get our beers and kindly escorted me back to the hotel (plus the numerous pictures I asked him to take! Cheers @stevenqpr here is your pic credit!)

I texted Tash ahead of time asking her to order me some chips and a Diet coke (my post marathon faves) at the Westin Grand. Berlin before we headed up to the post-race celebrations on the roof terrace. Unfortunately my stomach wasn’t quite up to much more than a few sips of fizz but randomly a pumpkin spice latte sounded amazing so after a shower and some time in the recovery zone, we headed back to the Brandenburg Gate for a couple of medal photos and the all important decaff Starbucks.

Huge thank you to Westin for the bib and for the chance to be part of the Berlin marathon weekend with them. I’ve become friends with the team there and it makes such a difference to be around people that support you personally and professionally. And thank you to everyone that sent me a DM, commented on a post or has just read my blogs over the years!