The
experience at the berlin marathon was super exhilarating. The very idea to even
try out my luck in applying for a world marathon major sparked from the initial
readings of race experience from Vijayaraghavan and Sunita from the previous
year and in some form or the other got a reminder from either of them in
facebook or on runners whatsapp group right around the time of registration
opening for the year 2017. I had tried applying for new york lottery in the
past for 3 consecutive years in the past and with no luck I had very low hopes
of even getting through the lottery for Berlin marathon. Right after my
portland marathon in October 2016 I registered for this and was trying to get a
training plan set up for the same for a too ambitious a target and come
September 30th, received the lottery drawing result to be positive and I was
all excited to plunge into the new training plan that was set in place by
sunil.
I
didn't realize all the logistics to be taken care for the event outside your
current country when you never have been and language being a big barrier to
execute a weeklong trip. With not so successful attempts to work out a plan
with a tour operator, reached out to the vijay/sunita/rao about their
experience and inputs to work out some plan. Some point I was event questioning
myself, as to if I should travel such a long way just for a race. With the
amount being already deducted for the registration I had nothing more to loose
at that point than the registration amount and let it be there. Just before
couple of months of the race is when I realized I had to really act upon a plan
if I am really trying to get there. Quickly booked out a slot at the German
embassy @ SFO and had to rush on a day trip to get my visa interview done. Just
around in time did my brother move to Zurich, so he had a lot of inputs to get
me to a plan and some rough plan was set and since I anyways had to give air
tickets for the visa interview, got that done along with initial 3 days of stay
at the youth hostel and all set in place.
With
my registration to racing, travelling around cities during the course of the
trip, have enough confidence to provide useful inputs to anybody who is looking
for a plan for the race and potential trips around
Prelude to the race
After
getting my first successful Boston qualifier timing @ Portland Marathon
2016(though got rejected due to field size :( ) , the set training plan was to
see if I can try and get any time under 3 hours, which by the way was super
ambitious by all means, but I thought of letting me push through the mental
barrier with equal amount of physical efforts combined with competing diet and
30 weeks of grueling training thoughtfully put out considering all dimensions
by Sunil menon and of course the
discipline and commitment to stick to the plan for that long a time on top of
any personal commitments and life changing events during this time. With us
expecting our second baby around June 2017, and me picking up the duty to
mentor runners at Asha running group, the commitment was tripled now. I must
say that was one whole period that needed so much motivation and discipline to
stick to all 3 dimensions and balance out on all as much as possible. If not
for anything, the whole training improved the levels of motivation in me to get
things done, but not at the sacrifice of other items considerably.
Biggest expo and pre-race experience
After
all the effort put in and day had finally come, flew in couple of days early to
reach out berlin on Sept 22nd not knowing if there is going to be any episodes
of jet lag and trying to get to know the nuances in foreign land with language
inhibitions. Checked in to the youth hostel, which was very close around 2 kms
to the start line and 1 km to the expo. Reserved the room not knowing the
proximity to all locations, with being economically good as well compared to
many other options. Reached the hostel around 5 PM, dumped the bags in the dorm
and looked up for the expo timings and found it to be open until 7 pm, with the
expo being near 1km away, set out to expo
on foot to get some circulation going on after 11 hours long flight. The
weather looked perfect, just cold enough to have a great weather for a walk.
Having seen expos in US and in India, wasn't expecting too much of difference
in the expo, but the expo experience was definitely a different one. Greatly
organized and grouped stalls and with enough souvenir stalls spent around just
an hour there and was a nice way to spend the evening, ended up stepping into
some Ethiopian restaurant on the way back to the room and was set in stage for
next 2 days to count. With expo being done , I had one whole day to go around
in berlin prior to race, but always bearing in mind the thought of not exerting
the day before the race. Went on a bike tour around the berlin main city
getting a 4 hour bike ride around the city, great way to keep your legs active
and roam around. Always hydrating with FastandUp Refuel right from the time of
boarding the flight from Seattle till the race. Got back to the hostel on the
pre-race day had a 7 euro pasta dinner in the hostel and was set out to room by
8 pm. Had an surprise in the 4 member dorm, had an elite runner doing 2:20
sharing the room, had a detailed discussion on how he trains and how he
perceives the race. With tons of simple learnings from him, set out to bed by
9:30 PM. It was pouring by then and was hoping to have a rain free race the
next day. You know what happens when we aspire to have something.
The D Day…What an experience !
Wake to start
With a 9:15 AM start, I was set to wake up at 6:00AM and was
rightly on time and had all the morning duties done and was in the dining hall
to have full size breakfast. This is my first race where I dared to attempt for
a full breakfast right around 6:30 AM. Stacked with cheese and butter with some
raisins and bread with some coffee, joined with the elite guy estenefan curious
to see what he has, just the bread loaf, with no dairy and liberal amounts of
honey and dry cereals without milk. By the way he has no habit of taking any
gels or anything else beyond water and electrolyte provided at the race :) .
After a heavy breakfast with enough time to clear the bowel, all of us set our
jog to the start line 2 miles away from the hostel. This ritual of trying to
stay 1 to 2 miles away and jogging to the race start has always proved helpful
preceded with 6-8 rounds of surya namaskar and 5 minutes of nadi suddha
pranayama, sets the tone for the day as any other day.
Start line experience
As we jog around the tiergarten
the big park located in the center with attractions like victory column and branderburg gate spread all around in the
vicinity of it, blocked all around to prevent any entry into the garden, we see
few runners along the way walking to the start line. Though I was curious and
anxious to know about the experience overall, we take a left turn leading us to
the road of Holocaust memorial area, I
see a whole wave of runners walking towards the start line. The maximum
capacity of any race that I have run in the past is not exceeding 15000, but
this race there were 40 thousand and change registered full marathon runners,
which explains the crowd, but the first feel of being nearing to the start line
of one of the world major was getting me on nerves as I walk. The climate was
cool kind of foggy, had rained all night the previous night, all roads wet with
pools of water here and there, as we take a right to the glimpse of branderburg
gate, there is a massive pool of runners trying to get snaps and the finish
line is all in view, I had opted for a poncho hence I did not have to check-in
any bag, but had to go along with my roomies to get theirs checked in, as we
keep taking turns in the street we reach the GERMAN parliament, having covered
all these places on bike I was feeling no different, but this time amongst a
sea of runners. Walk along with estefan towards the elite baggage check-in, man
that was like royal treatment, quickly depositing we are headed towards our
corrals.
He was obviously in corral A and I was in Corral D, wishing
each other we head into the corrals, had 40 minutes for the race start, joined
other runners who were getting warmed up, got in couple of strides, pre-run
drills, 12 rounds of sun salutations, which kind of kept me warm. Were in a
small section of cordoned off part of tiergarten with the whole area being
soggy and cold enough. I could already see runners lined up in the road leading
to Victory Column which I had visited the previous day, was all excited to get
there. Right around 25 minutes to start, had emptied a pack of Gel, slowly
sipping in with water, ventured into the sea of runners lined up heading to my
corral D, what a feel!! I could see the elite runners in the front, walked all
the way upto on the side path till corral A to have a view of all the elite
runners only to be surprised to see them relaxed, yet can't explain the feel in
me, being in the first world major, at the start line looking at the elites and
the very feel of joining the party behind them in the same Wave 1. couple of
huge TV screens playing videos, showing the elites, followed by videos in
different languages including Hindi wishing good luck to runners and
encouraging to get it all in. 9 AM the wheel chair start was on and dot on 9:15
wave 1 started. Though it was overwhelming experience I was kind of relaxed
just with the thought of going through the experience all along through the
historic city than anything else. I cross the start line with all excitement a
minute later after the elites started but part of the same wave. The only aim
was to stick to the BLUE line that was marked all along the course which will
avoid running extra distance and worrying about how to cut the corners.
Mile 1 to 10 (1 to 16 kms)
My original thought and aim as I started training for berlin
was to get a sub 3 hour if possible, but as the training progressed and with
other commitments that came my way and the physical capacity that I was not
able to peak to, I was so clear that I should not be attempting a sub 3 as I
was not there yet. So I cannot stick to the 3 hour pacing group and the next
one was 3:15 pacing group. So I decided to just see if I could keep up just
under 7 minute a mile which should get me a better time than my personal best.
Based on my previous experiences from the races, I just expected the crowd of people around
you to fade out quite enough that you can determine the path you take and
easily handle at the hydration stations, but this race it was totally
different, With all of the runners who knew about the blue line wanting to
stick to it, literally be on top of it :) , I was finding it hard to keep pace
due to people limiting you, had to keep moving around runners with enough
lateral movements at the same time trying to keep as close to the blue line. It
was a different experience all together, I was right at 6:59 for my first mile
just at around under 7 min/mile target, glad that I was not too fast which I
end up doing , this time limited by the manouvering around people keeping me in
pace. I still had to keep looking at my pace in between so that I try and
diligently overtake people to keep pace. The city was crowded with people
encouraging all around with annoucements coming along the way. Equally I felt
people smoking heavily which was kind of on the back of my mind but did not
really bother my pace. Mile 2 @ 6:50, mile 3 @ 6:52, mile 4@6:58, mile 5@6:49,
I started peeping to the current pace so closly thinking of trying to keep it
around 6:50s, which by the way was not taxing and pace and breathing pattern
were all going good, crossing the 10k mark at 41 minutes. Every time I crossed
a timing mat along the course, I was more thinking about what people who could
be tracking me comment on and with that excitement I was cruising well,
undeterred from the single focus of sticking to the blue line. We go through
different monuments, similar looking structures, moody morning, perfect climate
to run in, after around 4th mile it started drizzling, with a major part of my
training coming from a every raining seattle, I was all good, with my pace
still clocking around 6:50s to 6:59, it was coming naturally the only thing to
focus was to be right on the line.
Mile 10 to 20 (16 kms to 32 kms)
With the course being flat all through, I had no thoughts of
any hills or any worry about it, mile 10 was the first lap where I hit a
7:01/mile, was not bothered, it was all the lateral movement around people,
which caused it, the crowd around in the 3 to 3:05 mark wouldn't fade out at
all. So I was all made up mentally to deal with it and also around the water
stations which was liberally set up for a length of around .5 miles letting all
runners to seamlessly get the hydration. To all my surprise I see the small
disposable crushable plastic tumblers used and hearing sounds of people trying
to step on and the kind of plastic waste every 40k runner X 17 tumblers or more
was a overwhelming figure to handle. To my amusement I was reminded about the
literally hard plastic tumblers used in the Spice coast marathon in Kochi with
the statement of using those to avoid plastic waste and re-use. Two different
ends of thought. Mile 11 was a 6:54 and after that I was kind of feeling the
pace was hard to keep up but was just trying keep myself going at least until
half way mark of 13 miles(21.1 kms), mile 12 @ about 7:02 and mile 13 @ 7:01,
the under 7 minute mile was seemingly not possible to keep up considering I
have another 50% to cover. I was right at 1 hour 31 minutes at the half way
mark, which was making sure that I was yet again not going to get a negative
split nor an even split. Again thinking about folks who would be tracking and
what expectations they might have. Irrespective off late I keep thinking about
what would happen if I try to keep up pace now and then literally slow down
later, letting me to just run as I feel and stop looking at the pace and mile
splits. Literally after half way mark, I stopped looking at my splits since I
know that I was not keeping up to sub 7 minute a mile, but wanted to still not
slow down significantly off, with the only aim to run right on the blue line.
Around this time we were running along the city to the areas where I had not
been, with dense set of people all around encouraging and runners all around I
did not even for once felt that I was covering miles and never had a thought of
how many more to go. Something strange, which could also mean that I probably
took it easy or did not get out of my conservative thought of not wanting to
push through. Based on my previous experience with Seattle rock and roll
marathon in July , I did not want my first world major to be anything near a
pathetic performance I kept running as I felt just relying on trying to keep the
stride length and following the folks around. There were quite a few old
runners who were definitely above 60 who were consistently keeping up in the 3
to 3:05 range, many a times my only motivation was to overtake them and
maintain pace and so do they :). Mile 20 was now @ 7:22, which means I was
gradually slowing down not realizing it.
Mile 21 to Finish (33kms to Finish)
It was when I was approaching mile 16 when I started to feel
how many more to go, not sure of if I would keep pace and started counting , as
usual looking forward to the single digit miles to cover more, 9 more to go and
I able to keep it around 7:20s to 7:30s (not that I kept looking at it, just
speaking after the fact) my only aim was to not slow down significantly and yet
relying on the stride length and kept going. Kept having Gels every half hour
except for around 1 hour 50 mark where they gave in some liquid electrolyte ,
gulped it in place of the gel, I could sense a overload of sugar in that, kept
going consistent, now expecting on what would happen every next mile. With the
pace out, I was now starting to look around the buildings and people around and
trying to take in the experience as I ran through, it was definitely a unique
experience with never fading out of crowd on and off the course and perfect
climate with monuments all along or at least too different in styles. The
Bahn(trains) literally stopped on top of the bridges to view the race and
moving on was demonstrating how much the city is involved in the race and
participating along with the runners. Somehow from the previous few races I
feel sentimental when I see small kids and toddlers standing early enough on a
Sunday morning, letting out their hands for a pat, just having a feel of having
my older daughter standing there and encouraging. The very small pat brings in
a overwhelming joy in those small souls is always a delight to watch in spite
of the pain that you go through as a runner during the course of the race.
I was more looking forward to the final sprint passing
through the brandenburg gate and up to the finish line. I was there at the
final turn still following the blue line, I could see the gate and was a great
feel in itself and not forgetting to pose for the photographers, waving up both
the hands. As I cross the gate, I could see the huge line up of people with the
last few meters near the finish line and huge television screens where you
could see your pathetic form :) on the big screen, yet feel great to nearing
completion as they call out Sankara from India and the clock showing still
under 3:10, I was literally getting long strides to finish the race in 3:08:32.
Definitely was a great race experience indeed. It was slowly sinking in and
posing for photographs and slowly heading along the sea of people getting
refreshments and medal and heading to poncho collection. Waited in a massage
line for 20 minutes and after a great massage walked my way back to the hostel,
slowly trying to figure out way looking at the sea of runners.
A contented
overwhelming experience indeed! First major done and anxiously waiting to hear
about the outcome of couple of other major races(Tokyo & Boston)
registrations coming through in next couple of days, retired in the room after
heading out for a Desi lunch and small nap then after.
Gratitude in closing
I would be definitely failing and immoral if I do not express
my gratitude to my wife and mother in law, who were so so supportive who were
invitingly letting me get some good night's rest during the last few weeks,
which was definitely taxing on them given we had our new born and still under
two month's time period. Though this was not to appease and let me run, but a
truly expressed gratitude which needs to go in. As always for all the training
plans and guidance and understanding my personal commitments to Sunil for all
the inputs. We got more work to do. As I draft this mail, I have 1 positive and
1 negative outcome, Getting a lottery acceptance from Tokyo marathon 2018 and
denial of entry to Boston 2018( bummer for sure). I had just 2 mins 23 seconds
buffer on top of my qualifier time, though the boston entry was allowed for
folks who had run a minimum of 3 minutes and 32 seconds faster than their
respective qualifying time. This means my quest to get a registerable boston
qualifier time still continues, but for this time I am physically and mentally
super confident. With all due guidance coming from Sunil and the ever going
support from family and more undeterred and much more disciplined execution
from my side I am sure I should be able to get my Boston qualifier and London
qualifier in the next coming race. I should probably shut up and execute
instead of cribbing about lost chance and probability to get at it. The
training that went in last few months instilled in a confidence that I could seamlessly
get there in a matter of time, it was the last few weeks of my sheer lack of
discipline not keeping up to the given training and reduced amount of time
spent with strength training which costed me the timing. Though it was expected
to happen, have no regrets neither on not getting the time here nor on the
rejected BQ. Failures teaches lessons this time I am in a even more better spot
to leap to better ones. Looking forward to the training for Tokyo marathon,
which is not too far away, its in February end 2018. I am sure I need to face
the grueling winter months, but where does success knock you unless you push
yourself. Looking forward to great next
season.
SNAPSHOT
STATISTICS
GRAPHS
SPLITS
GARMIN ACTIVITY
STRAVA ACTIVITY
NUTRITION AROUND RACE
- Day prior to the race, lunch was a dal stew with lots of veggies in it
- prior day breakfast was typical continental, with liberal supplies of Butter and cheese
- Pre race night dinner was pasta with steamed and seasoned potatoes with couple of packs of butter and salt and pepper supplies on top
- Race day morning, 2 slices of bread with cheese and butter
- cup of grapes and a coffee 2.5 hours prior to race
- half hour before race a Salted caramel GU gel with water
- Gel every half hour to 40 miniutes during the race
- Water alone at all aid stations, did not find electrolyte stopping, when i found it, it was so sweet, I chose to avoid it.
- weather was not so humid, but was drizzling in the beginning, had drenched the head with cups of water after mile 15, which helped in a great way
- Post race, half banana, 500 ml water, chocolate croissant, one apple within first 20 minutes after the race
- India lunch with lassi 2 hours later
POST RACE RECOVERY
- The post race recovery was not really planned out, but I ended up touring the next 5 days, ending up walking close to 16-18 kms a day, I would say it was one of the fastest recoveries from a race ever for me
- Every day 2 litres of water with 2 tablets of Fast and Up Reload per litre helping me recover and hydrated through the jam packed walking trips throughout
