my marathon journey

I have been meaning to write about my marathon experience even though it wasn't really a travel experience for some time. For almost 3 weeks to be precise (ever since the run). But it is one of these things where you are asking yourself where to start...
When and how on earth did I decide I wanted to run a marathon? Well, I had been running quite frequently for quite some time and had successfully finished two half-marathons so the option was to either run a fast half-marathon (of course preferred by my sensible boyfriend) or to try going for the real thing. So ever since May/June I knew I wanted to go for the real thing in order to finish a marathon before I turn 30. Yeah, getting old maybe had to do with my decision ;-) So I started reading up in the extensive literature that our household owns - and found the "marathon bible" - Steffny's most popular running book I guess and decided that I would go for the 10 weeks plan to prepare me for 3.59 hours. For quite some time I had felt resistance to training plans and just wanted to "run for fun" but for the project marathon I realized that I should really follow a plan in order to prepare properly. The biggest difference to my practice before was the variation of the runs: all of a sudden I had to run faster or more slowly and especially include some intervals every once in a while- that's super exhausting but really helps and you become faster. The other component that anyone trying to run a marathon needs to consider is the long runs. And when I say long runs I mean LONG. The longest one I did was 32k but I think most of there are between 22 and 30k and you actually go very slowly. They usually fall on weekends since you barely have enough time during the week - in my case I mostly ran in the mornings before breakfast and for the long runs there is no way you can go before breakfast. Anyway, I didn't want to write about the preparation as much as the experience of the marathon itself. Although I do want to mention that the whole Spendenaktion really helped me in motivating myself- by telling a lot of people about it I had build up some pressure to actually do it :-)

The big day started quite early since I needed to get breakfast a few hours before the start (which was at 10 am) and if you've ever tried running on a full stomach- you know what I am talking about. I didn't want to take my polar watch as that thing stresses me out. At the same time I wanted to try running 4 hours - so I decided to stick with the pacemaker who was holding a big yellow balloon. She was incredibly fit by the way. After only a few minutes I was right behind her and stuck to her like a fly to the honeypot. I kept on remembering that "the Bible" always warns you not to start too fast so I stuck to my yellow balloon and felt quite comfortable during the first few km - it was nice to see the people cheering on the street and hear the bands, traditional Bavarian music in the English garden. At about 17k I realized there were some runners collecting donations from the crowd- a really nice idea but how do they manage stopping and then running again? I stopped at every food/drinks stall (and they have quite a few) but did not want to stop for too long not to "interrupt my flow" - and you actually do get into some kind of a flow- and you have a lot of time too. I started observing the people around me quite closely. There were a few experienced runners who kept on chatting with the yellow balloon (who btw ran into someone at km 21 and lost her pacemaker balloon) or even had their coach cycling by and giving them special advice and special drinks (doping?). When we passed the half marathon I still felt good but was starting to think- how much further? You keep on noticing the signs but you also keep on thinking- am sure they forgot one here- it must be km 25 already... Running through the east of Munich is the most boring part of the track btw- a very industrial area and not many people cheering for the runners. Don't know why they include this part but maybe they just could't block that many roads in the center. So I did notice the surroundings and was glad when we passed the Gasteig and actually came back into the city center. I also knew that I would have two great supporters waiting for me at km 30, close to sendlinger tor who would then run with me for the last 12k. But at this point I kinda had enough already- and starting from km 32 it became more difficult. At some point I decided I didn't care so much about the time anymore and could not keep up with the pacemaker anymore. My two pacemakers were trying to pull me a bit but the worst part for me was the circle that we made in Schwabing. I had seen it on the map before and it seemed manageable then but now after 35+ km it felt like FOREVER. And the worst was that we saw other runners on the other side of the road who were way faster, visualizing that there was still a LONG way to go. I remembered the motivational bit from the "Bible" that had told us to always focus on what you have already achieved and to slice up the rest of the distance in order not to think of the loooong way to go- but it simply doesn't work. Your mind really understands that you are trying to cheat and you just feel like this road will NEVER end. and your legs - you can't feel your legs anymore. Sometimes you touch them in order to check whether they are still there. You see a lot of people next to you stopping, starting to walk and all you can think is:
"Awwww- why can't I do this now? I really want to stop too." But fortunately both my running mates kept on telling me that I simply could't stop now- and that I was doing great. I don't think I would have been able to make it without them... So in the last bit a kilometer felt like 20 and I just wished it was over already. There was one long road back to the Olympiapark where the finish line is located - my god I could not believe how far that freaking road was stretching... And just imagine- you're on the verge of giving up and you see one of these annoying "releigh runners" who was all fresh and bright overtaking you and on the back of his shirt it says: "catch me if you can" - really evil slogan!
So I started walking briefly on that loooooong, never ending road and knew if I didn't want to give up I would need to start running again because once you stop you don't get yourself to start again. But I told myself- you go this far- you are at km 40- you will now make it to the end too. And starting in Olympiapark it got a lot better as the goal was right in front of me now- my two running mates got stopped as they didn't have a starter's number but another friend of mine who had been running the releighs talked to me for a few seconds (and told me that there is just one more round in the stadion left now) and in the tunnel to the stadion I remembered what I had been told- no matter what- keep running and don't forget to smile. So I tried.  I tried my very best- but as you can see from the pictures below- didn't work so well ;-) Anyway, when I was at the finish line (and you'd be surprised- no matter how dead you are, you'll still be able to sprint the past few meters)- I saw 4 hours 17 minutes and was relieved- it had seemed soooo much longer that I would have thought that it took me at least 5 hours. However, I found out later that my finishing time was actually 4 hours 5 minutes which was good considering I was close to giving up at the end but of course it was close, but not quite the time I had aimed for (below 4 hours). So already then I was convinced- I would do another one :-) However, it looks like that next race or even the next practice run will have to wait for a while after I twisted my ankle climbing yesterday and feel like I will be spending some more time on crutches and on the couch :-( While I was running the marathon I would not have thought that I would be wishing to be able to run that soon again...

Some pictures from the race