Chapter 16: Life, Dreams, Goals, and What Next?
Pre-race: Well it has been a long time, >2.5 yrs. So why the break? I’ve been asking myself that for the entire break and really do not have an answer. But what I can say is that turning 40 last December forced me to look at my life’s goals and try and find something new. Also, it helps to have a running buddy in a similar stage of life who opted to run the Marathon Majors and remind me of some of my old goals. The goal I am talking about here is that of running Berlin. This is something that started in December of 1996 when I visited Germany as part of a language class at Knox. Leaving the US for the first time to go to my family’s fatherland was definitely a great experience and seeing the Brandenburg Tor and knowing the marathon finishes in the garden on the other side sealed the deal. But somewhere along the road of life I had forgotten about this. Well that changed with a prod from Josh and I finally started running with a purpose again. Now with a multi-year break it was definitely slower than I had ever been in the 25 years I’ve been running distance, but I was running again!
What about the training? That used to be a page or more in these race reports but really all my training consists of now is just running. What I mean by that is that there were no track workouts, no hill repeats, no time trials, and no pace runs… But there were some good miles! Started the year off with 40-mile weeks and more or less kept that up for the entire build up to race day. I had a couple slip ups but was soon hitting 50-mile weeks, 60-mile weeks, 70-mile weeks, and I even hit one 80+ mile week for the first time since January 2010!!! In total for my 18-week training program I logged 1,021 miles which puts me at my 6th highest mileage of my 16 marathons. This is almost twice the miles I ran for the 2016 Birmingham Marathon, but most of them at 9:30 min pace range. Key training runs that broke that slower trend and gave me some confidence going into the race were a nice 17 miler in Hong Kong (7:55 pace) and a 20 miler in San Antonio (8:36 pace). But all said and done I put in the miles and all that was left was traveling over the Atlantic Ocean and getting to the race.
That said getting there is half the battle. Despite being my 16th marathon there were a lot of firsts. One of which was actually getting into the race. The lottery for many of these races close the day the race opens. Unfortunately, I’m also no longer fast enough to qualify for a guaranteed entry, so I had to do the next best thing and sign-up for a charity spot. The charity I chose was Team for Kids. The goal to make the entry was $2,000. If you are receiving this you are likely one of those who donated and if not in money at least in moral support, so Thank You!
Once in Germany, thanks to another friend, huge thank you to Christian, I then transferred to Berlin where I met up with Josh and we headed to the race expo to get our race numbers. We did a little sightseeing but did not want to tire ourselves out before the race.
One thing we did do was meet up with a new colleague who took us to a beer garden founded in 1837. We had some good German beer and sausage. Then he took as on a brief tour showing us where the wall used to be and explaining to us a lot of the changes that have occurred since re-unification. All and all we had a great time. After that all that was left to do was get a good night’s rest.
Race Day: Well thanks again to Josh we were staying close to the start. So, we got up and headed over stopping briefly for a picture in front of the gate and went to our respective corrals for the start. I managed to use my last marathon time to get in the C group, which is meant for 2:50-3hr finishers. This surprised me as I was looking for an E group start. In any case it was good because it put me ahead of the crowds but also meant I had to be cautious not to get pulled out too fast. This gets to my goal setting for the race. Now I have always set three standards for myself prior to the gun. This race was no different but with such a long break and no real workouts to gauge off of I was pretty clueless. That said my must have C goal was under 3:30, my B goal was 3:20, and my A goal was under 3:15. However, I really had no idea what I could do and with my best training run putting me in the 3:30 range I really thought that might be the best I could hope for.
All that said I lined up and the very back of the C corral. Waited for the countdown and then the start. It is amazing running in a race with 10s of thousands of people. It has really been since 2005 that I had been in anything close. It is also really hard to keep an easy pace with legs fresh from the taper and so many people ready to go around you. However, I managed just that. I hit the first mile in 7:48 which was right about where I wanted to be, statue to the right is within the first mile (keeping in mind that the markers are in kilometers…). I was thinking stick under but close to 8-minute miles as that is what my Hong Kong long was and that felt nice. So, for that first mile and most of the next 9 I let person after person pass me. This was tough but it also felt good, I was in control and I was having fun having a chance to look around.
Mile 2 was a bit faster at 7:18 and that had me focus on slowing down a little which I managed to do and get my mile back to 7:32. I hit my first 5K in 23:19 and was happy with that. I felt 23s were something I could maintain. Mile 4 was identical to 3 in another 7:32, this mile was also my first Gu and a little bit of a sugar boost. This got my legs moving and miles 5 and 6 were 7:17 and 7:21, respectively. This had my second 5K at 22:52 which was a little faster than I had wanted but still felt good about it as I was still letting people pass me and just focused on keeping it under control. The sights were great and the nice flat nature of the course made pacing a simple task. There were a few turns here and there but nothing too sharp. I did stay outside instead of running the tangents but managed to keep out from under foot. The next mile was my fastest up to this point and I was afraid I was getting into the danger zone but the 7:07 for mile 7 was appropriate. Mile 8 stands out in my memory as it was a large circular plaza with a nice fountain in the center. It was time for my second Gu and all cylinders were firing, legs still felt very good, GI wasn’t having issues, and I was still letting people pass me but fewer and fewer were accomplishing that task.
At this point I was in good enough spirits and felt good enough that I was contemplating starting to pick up the pace for the second half. This is not something I would have ever considered once during my 18 weeks of training. How could I be running a better pace than any of the runs leading up to the race and actually be feeling good enough to be thinking about going faster? In any case I was still in control and hit both miles 8 and 9 in 7:12 each. This had my 3rd 5K as a 22:10 and I really couldn’t believe it. I just kept thinking to myself that I had to keep calm and run easy… I managed just that for the next few miles. Specifically, I hit miles 10, 11, and 12 in 7:08, 7:17, and 7:09 with my 3rd Gu in mile 12 and my 4th 5K at 22:19, nice and even. However, now the halfway mark was within reach and I really had to think. What am I going to do?
The crowd overall was great through all of this. Although many were yelling stuff in German much translates when you run. It was also truly amazing to see all the different countries flags represented. Yes, this was my first marathon outside of the US and Chicago, etc. are fairly international but this was a whole new level of awesome. So many people from around the world coming together to participate toward a common goal and many more there to cheer all us nuts on J!
Here was the moment of truth, mile 13 and I hit it in 7:11. Up to this point my first mile was my slowest and I was still feeling great. However, I have been here many times before and still had the wheels fall off after mile 20… I ran the extra 0.1 miles and saw the half way clock tick past 1:37. I was well under a 3:30. Definitely knew I was nowhere near a sub-3:00 but could a 3:15 still be in the works? Well based on past performances that was a big NO! This is because I had never really negative split the second half and didn’t have much room to work with. But why not try? I decided it was ok to start passing people as long as I did not go under 7 minutes per mile. I let the breaks off a little and hit 7:04 putting mile 14 as my fastest of the race so far and still feeling fresh. The next one was pretty similar with mile 15 at 7:07 putting my 5th 5K just over the 22 mark at 22:03. This was great, could I hold it here?
The crowd was so encouraging and as I was still feeling, and I guess looking, fresh I was getting a lot of shout outs. Especially nice since Sandra put my name on my jersey so many of the shout outs were by name. Mile 16 brought my 4th Gu and I was feeling great with a 7:08. At this point I also really started focusing on the kilometer marks. This gave me regular checkups on my pace and this definitely helped. Miles 17 and 18 were 7:06 and 7:13, all very under control and very enjoyable. This also brought me to 30K, my 6th 5K and the first one under 22, just barely 21:59. This also lit a new fire in my legs as I was feeling great and very close to the dreaded 20-mile wall. Much of the marathon is a 20 mile “warm-up” and then a 10K race and this was my first time having run conservative enough to really feel that this was going to happen for me.
My new plan was to get to 20 miles and then just leave it all on the course. I’ve finished enough marathons to not have finishing as a goal. But running in a new country in great weather with spectacular support I just wanted to give it my all. That said, mile 19 was 7:03 and I was still staying above 7-minute pace like I wanted (so funny as 5 years ago I would have been making deals with myself not to go any slower than 7 minutes per mile…). That said I told myself one more mile under control and then just go for it. Mile 20 was 7:10, partly due to taking my 5th Gu. now was time to have fun and mile 21 was 7:01 with my 7th 5K 22:00 even (yes the mile splits don’t match the 5K splits by how the ends of each overlap).
This was it, time to lay it all on the line or go home! For the first time during this race I break 7 minutes for Mile 22! with a 6:56. This was amazing I couldn’t believe it I had run so few miles this year under 7 minutes and now I was laying one out there for mile 22 into a marathon. It was also time to take my final Gu which I unfortunately started choking on and had to stop and get some water. This put Mile 23 what would end up as my slowest mile for the 2nd half, 7:25. But I was not to be daunted and pushed down on the gas again once I was breathing normal and just missed a 2nd sub-7, 7:01! This had my final 5K split as 22:05, put me past the 40K marker and just over 2 miles to the finish.
The crowd was getting thicker, or at least I was noticing them more, and I was just loving it. Mile 25 was 7:05 and I knew the park was just another few turns away. The last mile I also knew had the most turns but I couldn’t remember how many so I just kept thinking one more then I’ll see the gate, one more then I’ll see the gate… Have to go faster. Finish strong. With that mantra in my head I just squeezed out one more sub-7 (at least that’s what my watch showed) with a 6:59.7 my 2nd fastest mile for the entire race! Now I knew I should only have about a quarter mile left but I could see the finish and it looked further away. Also, I remember I was not good about running tangents today and figured I’d have a little “bonus” distance. I was right and the final 0.22 was actually 0.57 which I managed in a 3:52 and a 2nd half 1:34 a full 3 minutes faster than the first half. I was so excited to see a solidly smashed A goal with a 3:11 total finish time and I’m pretty sure my first negative split marathon. The only other one that comes close was the 2008 St. George which has a very downhill 2nd half… Below is an image color coding fasted (green) to slowest (red) within each of my prior races (except Las Vegas which I didn’t get my splits from). The font is small but the point is the slowing in most of the previous marathons.
Despite being in Germany the finish line had alcohol-free beer which was interesting but also meant you could have a few and just enjoy the cold in your throat. I went and got my post-race massage and then started around to get near the hotel where I was hoping to catch Josh as he went past the 25-mile mark. Unfortunately, I just missed him but then headed back to the hotel for a shower and ice bath. Then I met up with Josh and we had a nice authentic German dinner and crashed for the night.
One additional exiting piece of news was that the world record was broken. Specifically, Eliud Kipchoge (whose face was on the back of the finisher’s medal) ran a 2:01:39. It is important to note that he also negative split by about 30 seconds and that this was more than a minute faster than the previous world record but actually more than a minute slower than Eluid’s world best 2:00:25 (which was not world record eligible). To put his world record into perspective his average 5K split was 14 minutes and 26 seconds, with his fastest 14:16 and his slowest 14:37. That puts his average per mile pace at 4 minutes and 38 seconds or for those who ran track, 69 seconds per lap around a 400-meter track!!!
Post-race: I started writing this story a few weeks ago when it had been nearly 10 weeks since I returned from my Berlin journey. The immediate post-race was fun and Josh and I went to a number of museums and saw some great sites, a few I had seen 22 years earlier in 1996 but still remembered when I was standing there again.
The main reason for the delay has been my crazy work travel schedule this fall. In October I was promoted to Associate Professor and in the build up to that, and partly as a result of that, I have been fortunate to be invited to speak at and/or have trainees present at a number of meetings (as well as some fun travel). In just the two months since the race trip I have been to Korea, Charleston, DC, Chicago, and Germany again! My running has taken a hit with the hectic travel schedule but hopefully I will have marathon 17 on the 2019 calendar soon… In total for 2018 I traveled internationally 4 times and out of the state 11 times.
Thank you for reading this far and for your continued or new support of my crazy endeavors!
All the best,
Adam
TOTAL: 3 hr 11 min 13 sec; Avg. Pace 7:12 per mile; Avg. HR 163
Overall place 2,698 out of 44,389
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