From Rumana Chowdhury…
Sometimes you turn up to a race and stand on the start line feeling strong. You start running, your legs feel good and you just know it’s your day. This was me 4 months ago at Edinburgh. Sometimes you turn up and you’ve already lined up a small trail of disasters, your legs instantly feel heavy and you just know this is going to be hard. This was me at the Berlin Marathon. Fast, flat PB course they said. Not for me!
Granted, my training over the summer hadn’t been great, but thankfully I like my job and my kids so I can’t be too grumpy about that. But whilst Ilkley Chat was telling me there were floods back home, arriving in Berlin there was clearly a heatwave in full swing. Various other issues were building up – checking in to the wrong hotel, hormones, coming down with a cold – and I was starting to get more worried than usual. But I’ve done enough races now to know you have to be positive and try to enjoy it.
So on I went to the start line, ready to try my best. But oh my word did all that positive thinking rapidly disintegrate. Starting at 11am after much standing around, I was hot from the get go, parched and desperate for the 1st water station. 2km in and disaster struck as I got a stitch that went on to plague me for most of the marathon. Not the kind you can do some stamping and stretching to get rid of, but one of those sharp stabby ones that made it impossible to move. It became a real fight to keep going with gritted teeth and a salty sweaty forehead. By halfway, most people around me were walking, the heat proving too much. I somehow lost my headphones so had no music to shift my attention away from the fact that a marathon is a really long way. At one point I tripped on the wet sticky ground laden with crushed plastic water cups and pulled my calf in the process, the crowd actually gasped as I went flying. Thankfully no major harm done. There were some high points, my husband joining me along the way was a treat, random people in crowd with speakers blaring loud techno music was funny, voice note of support from fellow Harrier Marie to lift the spirits and some beautiful sights of the city with a DIY party vibe much of the way. But having stood on the start line chatting to a runner, laughing about how we might not pb but at least we shouldn’t get swept up by the ‘loser bus’, as the race dragged on I really started to wonder if I’d even make the cut off. It felt like an epic, slow fight to reach the finish.
The sight of the Brandenburg Gate at the end was such a relief I actually cried, then after realising I still had another 400m to go I started swearing again, but the crowd at this point were massive and I high fived and air punched my way to the end. I ran, but no sprint finish this time!
When you’re not on for a PB, or a run that feels good, you do start to question why on earth you’re doing this. Strangely though, I’ve never felt so deserving of a medal, even though it was almost my slowest time, I felt pretty awful and had to walk and stop so much. I think having all the bad things that can happen on a training run (if you follow me on strava, you will know all about this!) actually happen on race day was like a nightmare, but pushing through it was rewarding in a way I couldn’t have imagined. I did it ???? 2nd star in the bag. Never again! (For now, anyway).
Results
Harry Styles 2:59:13 (Kudos. No I didn’t see him)
Dick Waddington 4:02:38
Rumana Chowdhury 5:15:09