Table of Contents
TLDR;
On 29th September 2024 I ran my first marathon: the Berlin Marathon. It was an unforgettable day for me.
My goal was simple: to finish the 42 km course well. But I ended up exceeding my own expectations. The energy of the event is amazing - random people cheering, people and bands playing music, the signs people make like “Tap here to power up 🍄”. My family was also there trying to catch me along the way to cheer me on time at different points, and even some of my work friends were also making the effort to catch me. Plus, having company throughout the course made it also better. Every part of it added up to create an amazing experience beyond anything I could have imagined.
At the end of the last kilometer I couldn’t feel any discomfort anymore and while running my friend Duda said “Now is the last kilometer, the faster we run the faster we finish”, and we started to speed up while crying and screaming of excitement. There’s something about crossing the Brandenburger Tor that always gives me chills, energy, emotions - I felt that first on my first half marathon in Berlin in 2023.
After crossing the Brandenburger Tor the final meters were there, Duda and I held hands of each other speeding up together, and finally we crossed the finish line, screaming, crying and hugging each other “We made it!!! We made it!!!”. Someone even came up to ask if we were okay, and Duda just laughed and said, “We’re happy!” 😅
The Memoir: Too Long, I have time and I want to read
This piece below is inspired by the book my friend Deborah recommended: “What I talk about when I talk about running”. I'm not a writer (well I try to write some stuff here on my blog), but I love giving context, and I love writing for myself about things that I experienced, but more for reflection. I'm usually a quiet person, an “overthinker” both in bad and “good” ways.
The bad? I often worry about what others are thinking, or I’m too deep in my thoughts that I forget my surroundings. The good? Well I’m not sure if it is good but I like to be thorough, thinking through different scenarios and having some sort of plan. I'm aware I can’t control anything, but I like to be minimally prepared for some things.
How it started
I’ve been running since 2017, but I wasn’t a dedicated runner. I’m not entirely sure why I decided to start running. I’ve always disliked gyms, running seemed like something I could do without needing one. My mom played a big role in driving my interest in running. She's been running since I was a teenager, collecting medals from various races, and even completing a marathon in Rio de Janeiro. So without any questions her running journey also influenced mine. Just to reflect on how inconsistent I was, it took me four years to run my first 10 km in 2021. 😅
The marathon journey
The idea of running a marathon started last year. I decided that I wanted to try but I didn’t know exactly how I would do that and which kind of training was necessary. I thought I would just increase the distance on my weekend long runs. That was completely wrong. I mean, there is more to do. But one thing I knew for sure: I needed to be at least mentally prepared, adding this topic to my therapy sessions.
After completing the half marathons earlier this year, I started my “training”, but I still didn’t have any concrete plan. The first half of the year felt chaotic for me, especially related to work and friends. When I was stressed and I had to train it was strange I’d run faster. Not out of joy, but powered by stress and frustration.
I decided to find a proper training plan. I’d used Garmin for my 10 km and half marathon plans which worked quite well. Unfortunately (or fortunately) Garmin didn’t have a marathon training plan with a “coach”. But I figured out how to generate the training plan through the Garmin portal website, with a 16 weeks training plan. I had 26 weeks before the marathon so I decided to give it a try, and honestly… It was super generic. It might work for some people, who knows.
I struggled to keep up with the plan and it didn’t work well. Some days I was simply too exhausted from work and life. I was burned out, having an existential crisis, far away from family and friendships falling apart. I discovered swimming during this time. I found a swimming pool hall which I enjoyed going to after a long day for swimming 40 min to 1 hour. While in the water I felt myself unwinding, and afterward I was physically tired and could sleep better. I thought I knew how to swim until the lifeguard asked to give me some tips to swim better because the way I’d done was not so efficient. Well it was nice, indeed I had to improve my breaststroke.
Frustrated with the generic training plan, eventually I spoke to a trainer I had in Brazil, but the communication was difficult and at some point there was no communication anymore. Well, okay, let’s try to make this generic plan work.
May
By May, things started to go downhill. On May the 4th was the craziest. I had a race on that day, a friend’s birthday, which I was planning to go to after the race. I also had to find a place to take a “passport photo”.
Not everything we plan goes exactly how we planned. I got a message from my sister telling me that my sister’s mom had passed away. I didn’t know how to react, with all the events planned, thinking about my mom, I could not be there with her. During the day I was just checking in with my sister to know how my mom was doing. My sister told me to run the race and she would be there with my mom and keeping me updated. I prepared myself for the race, it was the 10 km “Frauenlauf” . It's a Women’s run against cancer.
My race was full of tears, sadness, but I still hit a personal best: 55 minutes and 46 seconds. Not in a healthy way.
After the race I went directly home, to get ready to go meet my friends for the birthday. When I met them, I was exhausted. I just wanted to have a good time with my friend and the others, but it was strange I was "not there". Later that night, things escalated with another friend. It was a breaking point, we’d been off for months, and this argument was the final straw.
During life we have all kinds of friendships. The ones that are there just for fun, and the ones who stick around for the ups and downs. The latter usually you don’t need that many fingers to count them, or there’s no need to count it’s just a statement.
After this hectic day on Sunday I stayed at home the whole day and needed some time for myself. I felt that I didn’t really realize what happened yesterday. I meditated intentionally for hours, it was the time I wanted to internalize about my family. Remembering my aunt, my mom, my grand-aunt who passed away some years ago. I needed this time, it was deep. And I could finally “feel feelings”.
May is my birth month. I usually enjoy this month but this one was a bit unpleasant. But I also had good moments I can remember, like my birthday.
Some days had passed, I continued training, but I started to feel something strange on my legs and I ignored it. After some time my sister told me to reach out to the other trainer I had in Brazil. My sister talked to her and she talked to me. Then we started.
I also created a physical board to keep it visible for me every day, which I was filling every day/week my progress. This is how it looked like. Making it visible helped me on reminding myself when I was lazy and didn't want to train.
Building strength
This trainer listened to me, I told her I felt I needed some strength exercises but for doing at home (I still hate gyms). She prepared some strength exercises based on my needs and with the props I have at home like elastic bands, 3kg dumbbells, etc. Everything was going well.
Not a week had passed and I felt my legs getting worse, kind of weak, I had to ice them constantly. I stopped my training and went to an orthopedist, who diagnosed me with “Pes anserine tendonitis“ and prescribed 6 sessions of physiotherapy.
At that point I had 20 weeks before the marathon. I was demotivated and thought I could not do it. I hadn’t run further than a half marathon yet.
My trainer kept encouraging me, adjusting my running plan based on the information of my injury, and adjusted my strength training as well.
I started physiotherapy, easing back into running.
One day, while running, I passed 2 kids playing on the sidewalk. A little girl looked at me and held out her fist for fist bump. I reacted with a fist bump back. That made me cry so much! I was running and crying, that gave me more motivation that I would be okay and I could do it. After some days I was slowly getting back in shape. Slowly…
Lesson learned: Listen to your body. Seriously! How can that not be obvious? I wasn’t resting after running, my sleep was terrible, my emotions were a mess. My body was telling me like: “Girl… I‘m serious. Or you take some rest to take care of me and this other thing you call brain and your emotions, or I‘ll mess with your life.”
On July 10th I had my final physiotherapy session and I felt I was good to go. I kept doing some of the physio exercises at home, combining them with strength and running workouts.
Building endurance
My trainer started to add long runs to my training, 12 km, 16 km, 20 km, 23 km, 25 km. The 25 km run was special, my partner supported me on that day, it was my longest so far. I ran around a lake nearby his house doing loops. After every two loops, he stood there with Powerade, cheering me on. It was adorable.
I saw that my next long run was 23 km, then I sent a message to my trainer asking if it would not be longer as I had 8 weeks for the marathon and I was still not convinced that I could do the 42 km. She reassured me it was part of the process, she would increase the next one. I also had a 21 km race in between and after that a 27 km run. She planned my training accordingly and I just trusted her process.
On the week 4 before the marathon I had a 30 km run. That one I decided to break it down by sending a video message to my partner every 6 km. Breaking the distance into some sort of milestone helped me. After I finished, I cried. I called him and cried, I just made 30 km!! I was emotional. Such an accomplishment I couldn’t believe it, I got exhausted around 27 km but I kept going. I was still not sure if I could do 42 km.
Then came the 34 km, my trainer said it was the longest before the marathon. I had to be well prepared. I planned carbo gels, the time I would take them, snacks, water. All this was during summer, at 10am it was getting hot and I noticed my runs around this time were demanding more effort. This run was planned to last 4 hours 30 min more or less. On that day I woke up at 4am to eat something, have a good stretch, and go to the toilet. I have been doing this routine every time I had a long run. Like a ritual.
For these long runs, I prefer to create new routes on Strava—it keeps things interesting instead of running in circles.
The drawback of running around the city is when you need to go to the toilet. Berlin has a really good infrastructure and there are some good public toilets around the city and I use my phone to pay for it and the toilet opens, relatively clean. Good enough for this kind of journey.
During this 34 km run, I had an urge to go to the toilet around 10 km, and I couldn't find any toilet until 16 km. I was a bit terrified not knowing what to do around some residential area without anything. Finally I found a train station and there was one of these public toilets nearby. Good to go.
At the end of the 34 km, I was happy, exhausted and crying. I made it! I think I can do it. These long run training sessions were difficult, in the last 5 kilometers I was always struggling more to finish. I was afraid of that during the marathon.
Countdown
Two weeks before the big day, my family arrived and they joined me for some of my training. My mom, dad, sister, her fiance and my partner. Well he was not training but he was supporting me like always. My last long run was planned for 24 km but I struggled a lot. I only managed to finish 21 km and decided that was enough, which scared me. I told my trainer, and she reassured me saying I would be fine. I kept going with the rest of the training plan.
There was also a bit of drama during this week, my mom got lost in the forest while we were running around a lake. I had told her to always follow the lake path, but she forgot and got lost and she also had no internet. Luckily, she found a couple and asked them to share the internet so we managed to find her. That was another stressful day in the middle of everything. But thankfully it went well in the end.
During the marathon week, about 4 days before the race, I decided to prioritize my rest. My family explored the city on their own, and my sister was already good enough to navigate around Berlin. Meanwhile, I was sleeping some more, staying at home organizing my gear. We’d meet up in the evenings for dinner, which was mostly pasta, risotto, lasagna, chicken, rice, lots of carbs and protein. We had really nice moments cooking together.
The day before the marathon there was a 5 km race along the final part of the marathon route. My whole family participated, even my partner. I was surprised he ran the entire 5 km. It was really nice for all of them to experience the vibes of a race in Berlin.
As for marathon day itself... Well, you already know how that went from the beginning of this post :)
I’m really proud of everything I put into it, every effort, every challenge I faced during this journey. In the end, it all made sense. The journey is complete.
Now it’s time for new goals. For the moment I want to focus on improving my times for 10 km and 21 km. I’ll think about whether I want to keep running marathons in the future. I’ve learned it takes a lot of dedication, but I also know that if I want to do it, I can.
If you're still here. Thanks for reading :)