It has been over a month since I ran Berlin. I have done very little running since I got back to Atlanta. The pain that Berlin brought to my body had made me consider resting for a while, stretch, strengthen and, if possible, “correct” my body to get it stronger and ready for the next race. So I guess I will not be doing the half marathon on Thanksgiving Day. Nonetheless, I still want to complete this post to record my experience at Berlin for future reference.

For Marathons, I usually plan for up to 5 months of training. Besides the program itself there are many factors that will affect how a race turns out. Every race is different. That refers to not just the race itself, but also to the few months of preparation before the race.

There are some plans that I thought worked well for me in one race. I try to repeat that for another race, but that race may give me a very different result. That is simply because there are other factors that come into play and in the first place, what I thought was the right thing to do may not neccessarily be *THE* right thing anyway.

Berlin is my 5th Marathon. So, what problems had I faced during the run? What are some of the information related to my preparation and the race itself that are noteworthy in a post-mortem?

1) Race day conditions

Temperature – mid-teens at race start; around 25 degrees Celcius later in the day
Shoes – Nike Air Structure Triax 11, with 370 miles already clocked
Water stops – ample; the Basica sports drink was something new
Nutrition – GU gel at 8 and 16 km; Kit Kats at 24 and 32 km; bananas at 20, 25, 30 and 35 km

2) Physical condition on race day

First half – generally felt great; comfortable 6.45 s/km pace; slight lower back pain towards the end; slightly strained left sole throughout
21 to 27 km – signs of left knee pain characteristic of ITBS; signs of pain at left hip joint; continued lower back pain, but seemed to go away with slight adjustment of posture; hints of cramp in inner thighs
27 km – had to stretch ITB, try to loosen up thighs; started running again, but soon had to walk and stretch again
Thereafter – Combination of stretch-walk-run and eventually 100% walk; main complaints were hip and knee pains and thigh cramps; strain in left sole aggravated

3) Training

Total mileage 371 miles
Weekly mileage up to 38 miles
Besides the Sunday long runs, the longest run in the week has been increased to 12 miles towards the end of the training period.
Did a few interval trainings, probably not as many as the previous year.
No serious tempo runs.
Minimal running in the gym, so not much running on the treadmill that kept me running at a consistent pace.
Weekly crunches and pushups to train the core.
Taichi once a week.
No warm up race due to timing (The Buckhead Sizzler was held after Berlin).
Did not stretch as much as I should have. ITB felt tight throughout the season, though it had not given me problems during training.

4) Pre-race

Fell sick after final long run, 3 weeks to the race.
No running after that, except for a couple of 2-mile stints 2 weeks before the race.
Have had to be out for work more often this year and as a result, had been walking around in heels more often than last year.

5) 1 week prior to the race

This was the fun part.
Arrived in Berlin the Monday before race Sunday.
No issues with jet lag.
Spent the entire week, up till Friday, sightseeing, on foot. Even on race day’s eve, I was still walking around a fair bit, though I made an effort to walk less. Wore old walking shoes that were reasonably worn. I aleady felt the strain in my left foot on the sightseeing days.
Carried a fairly heavy load while walking around in Berlin – backpack with water, jacket, tripod and some valuables, with camera slung over my shoulder. Was having backaches as a result of walking around with the load.

Summing up, I guess the basis of my problems during the race was related to biomechanmical imperfections. Adding to that, I had not done sufficient stretching this season to loosen up my muscles. Walking around in heels might have caused strains to my legs and tightened up some muscles as well. My training had probably also not been “hard” enough and the 3-week break to recover from my sickness could have made me lose some form too. Finally, even though I tried to remind myself not to be an ambitious tourist in Berlin, I was not very successful at doing that. The walking around definitely affected my feet such that I did not have “fresh legs” to start the race.

Voilà my post-mortem on Berlin.

When I got back to Atlanta, I had thought of visiting a sports chiropractor to do an assessment on my biomechanics. However, the amount of fees he charged made me fall off my chair. I had to be prepared to pay more than $200 for the first consultation. That was only the first consultation! Well, it is not as if I am 15 minutes from qualifying for Boston and paying so much money will make it all worthwhile. I decided to take a more economical and practical approach. Massage and pilates are what I am going for now.

This time, 27 km was the limit. Hip pains, thigh cramps, knee pains and feet strains all came into play. It started out as a stretch-run-walk routine, but I soon figured that I would be better off walking most of the remaining distance.

The will was there. I began counting, kilometre by kilometre, … 32-33-34… It did take a good bit of will to keep going. As the count went from the low thirties to the high thirties, a few people appearing along different parts of the course began to catch my attention.

To be exact, it was not the people who caught my eyes. It was that ribbon that they wore around their necks. A ribbon with black, red and gold stripes, from which hung the finishers’ medal.

Black, red and gold, these are colours familiar to me. When I was a teenager, I had weaved a wrist band of these colours and tied it to the strap of my bag during the World Cup seasons in support of the German team. Now I had a chance of earning a medal with a ribbon of these exact colours and seeing it just brought back some memories. I wanted that medal, but to get it, I should not let myself faint, cramp and collapse or simply give up before crossing the finish line.

Once I had my black, red and gold ribbon around my very own neck, I got to take a close look at the medal. On its front side is the face of Haile Gebrselassie, with his world record timing of 2:03:59 h engraved on it. This is the time he set in Berlin in 2008, the first time a runner ever broke the 2:04 barrier. The engraving on this year’s medal commemorates his record-setting feat last year.

The other side of the medal is the obligatory text showing the event, the date and the year. As image, it shows that famous moment as Haile crossed the finish line last year, arms in the air, a wide smile across his face.

Actually, the race magazine given out at the expo had a column describing the design of this year’s medal. I did not read it the night before the race as I was busy packing and memorising the water and refreshment points.

This one is definitely something different from the medals that carry the same designs year after year, except for their dates. I like it!

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.

I did my final long run this past Sunday. 22 miles on a Sunday morning is a daunting thought. I was looking forward to tapering and to not having to drag myself out of bed at 4 or 5+ on Sunday mornings any more. I have been having problem falling asleep Saturday nights and have been doing my Sunday runs with insufficient rest.

I felt lousy during the run this Sunday. The mind was not there. The body loses it when the mind is not in control. Still, I made myself complete my run. And you know it when your body is about to lose it. Long runs are taxing to the body. I have came across articles that say that a runner’s immune system is generally weaker after running a marathon. The truth is, it does not even have to be a marathon, all it took was a long run like what I had this past Sunday to make my body feel so vulnerable.

Sunday afternoon, I felt as though my body was ready to open its doors to viruses and bacteria. Sunday night, I took a plane to Nashville for a meeting the following day. The flight was delayed and I had to spend some time at the airport where the air conditioning was cooler that I had expected. Nashville’s nocturnal air was pretty cool too and I probably caught a chill that evening. I went to bed immediately after arriving at the hotel, exhausted.

Monday, my sore throat began to make its presence felt. Tuesday, my nose started to leak. Wednesday, I felt groggy waking up. I did not work, went to the doctor, who reassured me that it was not the flu. While it feels miserable to be sick, earning some time off to rest is a nice break from the laborious routine. Not something I wanted to happen during my taper period, but well, what else can I do now apart from rest?