Notes
It was a warmer day but felt cool walking to the start. Margo came with me, which was good so I could bring my sweatshirt and give it to her. We walked from hotel which was about 2 miles after having to walk around to the start. Got into my corral about 20 mins before, was great atmosphere. Kept on my throwaway shirt until about 5 mins before the gun. Great fanfare and great start was very wide. Brought 2 Gu with me and gave one to Margo. Felt pretty good and was maintaining a good consistent pace. The water stops were only every 5K so they got very crowded. They gave water in plastic cups and it was very hard running over them. Also water stops were very crowded. I decided to run with the 3:15 pace group and pretty much held on to them for most of the race. There seemed to be about 4 pacers in the group and there was a big gap between each pair. I never felt bad for the most part and was surprised that I was maintaining the same even pace. The course was very flat and mostly through neighborhoods. It started opening up more towards the end of the race. I saw Margo at around 20K and then she saw me again at around 35K. I still managed to stay with the pacers with about 3 miles to go, but my Achilles was starting to bother me more and I could feel I was struggling more. I didn't think I could maintain the same pace throughout, my goal was about 3:20. The last 3 miles were tough and even though I was passing people many of whom were walking, I really had to fight it. The final mile was the toughest of all but I knew I was close enough to grit it out. At that point the pacers were ahead of me and I just couldn't make up the distance. I could see the Brandenburg Gate in the distance and at that point, I just soaked it in. It was a great feeling. Went under the gate but the finish line was about 200 meters further. I stopped tat the mat and stopped my watch. I forgot to start my watch until about a minute into the race so my time was really 3:16:18. I was thrilled with the time, even though it was a bit disappointing not to get 3:15. Achilles was really sore but other than that I felt good. Lot of walking to get the family meeting area. By this time it was sunny in the high 60s. The times in my AG were incredible. The winning time was 2:52 and several runners got under 3:00.