First Go – Berlin 2008 (Part 1)

When I woke it was still dark outside. Despite it being a strange bed in a foreign city my mind was already aware of what was ahead and why I was here. Brown bread, porridge, bananas, tea and juice. We ate breakfast in relative silence. Dave, my third running buddy, and I were here for the same reason. The Berlin Marathon and our first proper attempt to run a sub 3.

A half hour later we loaded a few basics and with the September morning sun now lighting up the city we left the apartment we had rented for the weekend and began out on the empty street – two drops of rain falling down.

Gaunt faces, expectant eyes, luminous runners, tracksuit bottoms with one solitary plastic bag carrying their gear. No, not drug dealers but marathon runners, and as we arrived into the metro station we began seeing the first signs of other road-warriors as our drops became a trickle, slowly growing at each stop until it became a stream when we changed over to the next line. As we came off into the main train-station of Berlin Hauptbahnhof, our stream was now a river and by the time we broke outside and down towards the start we were a full-flowing torrent of runners about to pour into the 40,000 strong lake that annually makes up one of the biggest marathons in the world, Berlin.

When races swell in numbers the start is often made up of channels you must walk down to find your starting point, something that is based around your expected finishing time. Of course we overcooked our entry point and came out in front of the start. In returning back to the start we then had to navigate our way round a hernia-shaped enclosure that abutted out from the front line. Dave, at 6-foot something decided that rather than jog round he would hop the barrier and short-cut across. I remember watching him as I circled and noticed his amble over start to slow-motion as his mouth widened and his jaw dropped. Catching my eye, he pointed down. There, passing him was one of the greatest all-time marathon runners, a social justice activist, future hotelier and all-round nice guy Haile Gebrselassie. His small, nimble frame just passed by Dave and smiled. It was cool. Almost 2 hours 3 minutes and 59 seconds later her would break his own marathon record, Haile that is, not Dave.

I heard a funny story once about Haile. Landing late into a city hotel where there was no place outside safe enough to run he began running lengths of the corridor. Once people realised it wasn’t a fire a few even joined him. From what I heard about him, he always came across as a really nice guy. I shared with Dave this story as we climbed back over a crash barrier and into the lake of runners also aiming for sub 3 hr. Then we waiting, along with 39,998 others, waiting for the gun and our dam to burst forward.

Yesterday’s running
Still a duck egg 0, though I continue to do strength & conditioning on my calf and gluts to keep them occupied.