Berlin, Germany · September
Pacing the Berlin Marathon
Flat and fast
The flattest and fastest of the big city marathons, and the course where most marathon world records have been set. Wide roads, few sharp turns, and cool late September air.
Official site: dates and entry
Dates, ballots and entry rules change every year and are not listed here. Check the official site.
How to pace it
Berlin is the one major where holding a single pace for the whole race is genuinely realistic. There is almost no elevation to plan around and few corners tight enough to break rhythm, so the pace you set in the first 10 km is close to the pace you will still be running at 35 km if you judged it right.
That is also the trap. A course with no natural brake makes it very easy to run the first half two or three seconds per kilometre quick without noticing, because nothing pushes back. On a hilly course you feel the mistake early. Here you feel it at 32 km.
The field is large and the early kilometres are congested. Losing 20 or 30 seconds in the first two kilometres is normal and not worth chasing back. Let the crowd thin and settle into target pace by 5 km.
Worth knowing
- Cool conditions favour going out at goal pace rather than conservatively, but only if you have run the pace in training.
- Wide roads mean you can drift off the racing line without noticing. Run the tangents.
- A flat course loads the same muscles for the entire distance, which is its own kind of fatigue.
What the common targets ask for
| Finish | Per km | Per mile |
|---|---|---|
| 3:00:00 | 4:16 | 6:52 |
| 3:30:00 | 4:59 | 8:01 |
| 4:00:00 | 5:41 | 9:09 |
| 4:30:00 | 6:24 | 10:18 |