Berlin Marathon
Like I wrote earlier, the Berlin Marathon was very hard and I think next time I will have to prepare much better. I think I was ready cardio-wise, as I never really got too tired during the run, but my legs really started to hurt at about mile 18 or so. I started having an extremely sharp pain in the top of my foot, where it meets the ankle, that would shoot up through my leg every time my foot came down. It got so bad that I stopped to stretch and for 3 or 4 miles, kinda had to half walk half limp along, which sucked. Then I realized that it was coming from where my timing chip was tied onto my shoelaces. Right before the race I tied my shoes super tight. Well, I untied my laces and saw that the chip had kinda cut into the top of my foot where that big tendon is on top. After I loosened it up, the blood came rushing back into my foot and I felt instantly better and ran the rest of the race fine. So I think if I hadn’t tied the laces too tight I would have done better because it is almost impossible to feel cozy running again after you have stopped a bit. I also didn’t have any Vaseline to put all over myself like I saw everybody else doing so I got some nasty rubbing injuries under the pits, on my feet, and legs. But some guys had it worse and came out with bloody shirts where the nips started to bleed, which just shows hows bananas a marathon is.
I also wore my fuel belt because I always used it in training, but don’t think I would wear it in a race next time. I hardly used it. I only ate 2 or 3 gels in the whole race and the water from the aid stations is plentiful. The thing just weighs you down and gets annoying. I have bloody marks all along my waist from where it rubbed as well. I also wore my I-Pod, but also didn’t actually have it on too much. The crowd is much better music to listen to and much more inspiring. I went out of my way to give the little kids high 5’s on the road whenever they had their hands out. And they love calling our your name as you run by.
So all in all, I think the race was a great success, if only as a learning lesson. I have no idea what my time was. The clock was in the middle 4 hours when I came through, but that gets started when the elite runners begin and I didn’t cross the starting line until at least 20-30 minutes after that, so I’m not sure. It doesn’t matter to me much since this was my first marathon and I just wanted to finish. I think I will set a time goal of 3:30-3:45 for my next one though, based on how fast I was running before I ran into problems. And there will definitely be future marathons. I love the simplicity of the event. The raw, exposed humanity is beautiful and I salute everybody who ran with me that day, whether they broke a world record or walked across the mat in 7 hours.
Heres a pic of me waving to Petey Pete at around mile 10.
