Race Date: Sunday 21 September 2025

Berlin. Flat and with a fat cheque book this race consistently produces fast times and has also attracted many Steel City over the years wanting to combine racing with a bit of tourism despite the difficulties in obtaining an entry. One of the conundrums with an Autumn marathon is training during the summer months. Long evenings mean that there’s no need to trudge around the streets in the dark but hot weather, especially with the heat wave that the UK experienced this year, can make life difficult, especially for the long run. Perhaps this acclimatisation was a blessing in disguise as conditions for Berlin were extremely hot for 2025 and with waves starting from 9:15 onwards (Gill Pearson started at 10:50) only the very quickest managed to escape the full glare of the midday sun.

 

After recently moving up an age group, Caroline Brock has been munching her way through the current F40 road records, mainly set by Mary Picksley in the early 1990’s. It’s testament to what an engine that Mary had that so many of her records from that era remain unchallenged. Caroline ran 3:02 at Manchester last year as an F35 so, surely, Mary’s record of 3:06 was under threat but conditions at Berlin put paid to such ideas. With temperatures up in the mid twenties Caroline took a view and “….ran to feel rather than time and it turned out pretty well passing lots of runners in the second half, and some of those were on the floor – I was not letting that be me today, it was about getting to the finish line! The expo and race day logistics were very easy. Water stations on the other hand were absolute chaos. I think the number of people struggling even before half way shows how tough the conditions were and I’ve never seen anything like it in a marathon. I loved it though and will target the F40 record on another day.”

If running a marathon in 26 degrees isn’t bad enough, Gill Pearson’s experience highlights the importance of having decent travel insurance. Already having to cope with the heat like all the other competitors, Gill had a bad fall at 34km hurting her hand and she now takes up the story which explains why she had a 62 minute split between 35k and 40k.

“I was seen in an ambulance at the roadside. Mainly concerned about my face, my hand didn’t hurt so much then and I was allowed to carry on to finish the race. It was only then that I noticed the pain in my hand, having to support it to the finish line but managed to raise my arms going through Brandenburg gate!!  At the end I went to the aid tent which was full of people on stretchers so I felt a bit of a fraud. They gave me an ice pack. I hoped the swelling would settle but it hadn’t by Monday morning so we took ourselves to the hospital. Had a couple of X-rays and a CT scan which confirmed a fractured wrist so now it’s in a cast and to be reviewed when I get back to Blighty. But I did get the medal.

We have travel insurance but am now wondering if it covers me if I’m taking part in a paid sports event? However, we have a provisional replacement certificate for UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC). The doctor at A&E seemed to think that a charge of €200  in cash, which surprisingly we had on us, covered all emergency care for one episode. Hopefully he’s right as the radiologist said that a CT scan could be €1000 to €2000 and seemed surprised that I hadn’t been advised of this before going ahead. But if it’s all included as one episode we should be ok.” (Editor: Note to self. Check if your travel insurance covers training or racing whilst abroad.)

Katie Gill supplies us with an account of a more successful outing together with experience of travel, the Expo and arrangements at the start.

“Getting around: My hotel was central and on the S Bahn line so really easy to get everywhere. The xpo moved this year to Messe Berlin which was still only a couple of short train rides away. I have to say, despite all the posts I’d read in a Facebook group about how busy and poorly organised the expo had been in previous years, I found it very well organised. We arrived for opening and were let in at 8:55am. No massive queues, all the merch you could want in all sizes, and no crowds of people waiting to find their name on the wall! No doubt later in the day it would be busy but this year they also introduced a time-slot booking system which I’ve heard made things easier.

Race day logistics were a doddle. 3 stops on the tram and then a walk from the Hauptbahnhof, 15mins tops. Not possible to get lost – just follow the crowds! The start village is quite spread out as you can imagine with in excess of 50k runners milling around but easy to navigate and lots of volunteers on hand to help if you were a little unsure.They advised arriving from 07:00 for the 09:15 wave which I was in. I left my hotel at 7 and could probably have left quite a bit later in all honesty as I was waiting around feeling nervous for a bit too long! When the race began it was a slow walk to cross the starting line from my corral (D) but only 15mins.

The main chat on the Facebook group for at least 2 weeks leading up to the race was that it was going to be warm. And it was! 19/20c at 09:00 which filled me with dread.

We all go into these things with goals- I had an incredibly optimistic A-goal of 3:30 (I laugh out loud as I type, given a foot operation in April 2024 and being under the care of a physio since starting my training for this one due to a niggly Achilles on my “good” foot!) B-goal was a PB so under 3:48 and C-goal sub 4. With the heat I obviously gave up on 3:30 and thought I’d give a 3:45 a go but quickly realised that was out of the question as running in the full sun even from the start was a lot! Along the way I made sure I stopped at all the water stations to keep hydrated and later in the race to keep cool taking an extra cup of water to douse myself and keep cool. People were struggling and I didn’t want to end up in the same boat so despite feeling great (three day meticulous carb loading for the absolute win plus a Maurten every 4-5miles and a couple of electrolyte capsules on the way too!) I kept to a relatively easy pace. The wall never came for me and I was absolutely ecstatic when I crossed the line in 3:53:33. This experience has been a huge mental boost for me and I loved it!”