After training and racing for about 2.5 years with all my distances measured in miles, my internal pace converter has been calibrated to work with distances in miles. In Berlin, the course will be marked in kilometres. The change in units may simply throw my internal system into a state of chaos and I feel that I need to lay this out in front of me to see.

Distance conversion:

• 5 miles – 8 km
• 10 miles – 16 km
• 15 miles – 24 km
• 20 miles – a little more than 32 km
• 22 miles – about 35 km, more like 35 and a half, i.e. around 7 km more to go
• 24 miles – over 38 km, i.e. less than 4 km more to go
• 25 miles – 40 km plus a couple of hundred metres, i.e. about 2 km more to go
• Counting the 2 km that remain should not be too difficult

Pace conversion, which is the harder one:

• 13′00″ /mile – 8′08″ /km
• 12′30″ /mile – 7′49″ /km
• 12′00″ /mile – 7′30″ /km
• 11′45″ /mile – 7′21″ /km
• 11′30″ /mile – 7′11″ /km
• 11′15″ /mile – 7′02″ /km
• 11′00″ /mile – 6′53″ /km
• 10′45″ /mile – 6′43″ /km
• 10′30″ /mile – 6′34″ /km
• 10′15 /mile – 6′24″ /km
• 10′00″/mile – 6′15″ /km
• Any faster than that, I would be killing myself

I have said before that not having hills to confront in Berlin, the mind and body can focus on other tough aspects of the race. However, I do not want my brain to be preoccupied with doing math as I run. I will be rereading this post every now and then in the coming week. At some point, I will internalise the numbers. This is some kind of mental preparation for me.