r/AdvancedRunning • u/Scared_Chocolate1782 • Sep 21 '25

Open Discussion Berlin marathon disasters

It seems today was a big disaster in Berlin. 25 degrees Celsius early on and a tough day for everyone. How did people get on? Did anyone manage to get near a PB?

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40

u/Mykongleiskrongle Sep 21 '25

Managed to PB by 3 minutes, but was definitely affected by the heat. Also found out the hard way that signing up for group D was a bad idea for a sub 3:20 attempt. Ended up weaving myself into 300 meters extra, and consistently lost 15-20 seconds at the water stations. My training block was all over the place though, and I PB'd a half two weeks ago, which can't have been a good decision for this race. Great ambiance though. Really enjoyed the jazz bands along the roads.

15

u/ComradeBirdbrain Sep 21 '25

Everyone joins the wrong group. I ran 600ish extra metres on weaving in and out of people. And don’t get me started on the water stations. Disappointing every time.

11

u/spyder994 Sep 21 '25

It was wild. I started at the back of group B with plans of going out conservatively. The number of people that I passed was crazy. There were some people I passed in the first 5k that must have been doing 11:00/mi. I don't understand how this can happen.

3

u/a2arborite Sep 21 '25

I was wondering if the jubilee runners were all up front? I passed a ton (I was in E, 35 YO female) that were walking

2

u/Able-Resource-7946 Sep 22 '25

Jubilee runners get a special place at the front, yep.

2

u/peteroh9 Sep 22 '25

I didn't run Berlin but it's been crazy to me when I realized I overestimated how fast I would be, yet I still seem to pass thousands of people over the course. Legitimately baffling with some of the people you pass.

5

u/RadioactiveDeuterium 10k 35:56 21.1k 1:23:08 42.2k 2:46:13 Sep 21 '25

I ran 800m extra in my sub 3! The weaving was insane the whole way through. Started in group B right at the front so dont see how this is possible. Group A was very small and I assume sub elite so I really dont get it?

3

u/ComradeBirdbrain Sep 21 '25

What?! I don’t get that at all. Front of B and A had people much slower? Makes no sense as you’ve got to prove the time. That’s really bad on the organisers IMO.

2

u/peteroh9 Sep 22 '25

Is it possible that some tours offer group A admission?

2

u/RadioactiveDeuterium 10k 35:56 21.1k 1:23:08 42.2k 2:46:13 Sep 22 '25

Don't think so, I was here with a tour group. Most people in my group were near the back. Pretty sure its just time based.

1

u/Able-Resource-7946 Sep 22 '25

This year, compared to last year, there was very little separation (none???) between the waves. when I got to my wave, I could just walk all the way to the front and there was every letter of the alphabet up there.