Race Review: BMW Berlin Marathon 2024 (50th Anniversary)

The 50th edition of the BMW Berlin Marathon 2024 took place on Sunday 29 September with a record number of 54,280 finishers completing the 42.195km foot race.

For the past 50 years, the Berlin Marathon has been connecting people and countries and creating historic moments for not only runners, but also their supporters and spectators.

I was one of the finishers and here is my race review.

With the legend Robert Wang

The race flags off at 9:15am, which is considered late for someone who comes from Singapore and is used to 4:30am flag off times. As such, it felt like a luxury to get a good night’s sleep and have some breakfast at the hotel buffet before the marathon.

Mine was the second wave, which had a 9:45am start. I took the train and arrived at the race village just after 8am. My hotel was around 15 minutes away by train. It was a good thing I arrived early, because the toilet queues were already building up. It took around 30 to 40 minutes for me to queue for the toilet, after that, I went to deposit my baggage and headed to the start pen. The toilet queues became progressively longer as the morning wore on.

There was a human traffic jam at the start area. To get to the start pens, we had to walk through a forest area and there were so many people that we were crawling along. Due to the crowds, it took at least 20 to 30 minutes for me to get from the baggage deposit area to the start pen. I reached my start pen at around 9:40am.

Our wave was delayed by 10 minutes possibly due to the large crowds. I started my marathon at about 9:50am.

I started running at around 5:10 minutes/km pace hoping to maintain this for the whole distance. I was feeling quite good in the early stages. The weather was perfect at about 7 degrees C and it was cool with not much sun at the beginning.

The route for the Berlin Marathon, renowned for its world-famous, record-breaking fast and flat course, brings runners on a tour of the beautiful history and architecture of Berlin. The race begins and ends near the famous Brandenburg Gate. It is the flattest of the World Marathon Majors with very little elevation gain and a perfect course to set a personal best.

The first 21km went by very quickly. I was enjoying the energy of the crowd and the enthusiasm of the spectators, and the run felt easy. I was sticking strictly to my gel and fuel strategy regardless of how I felt. I was taking a gel at every 7km and sipping my salt electrolyte drink roughly every 2.5km.

Maurten drink and water were given out at regular intervals along the route, I think every 5km. The drink was flavourless and tasted quite neutral. I don’t really train using Maurten’s electrolyte drink, so fortunately it didn’t cause any issues with my stomach when I took it during race. I’m usually more fond of Tailwind because I prefer the flavours.

The spectators in Berlin are amazing. They really come out to cheer on the runners and they are so supportive. Many spectators have also prepared funny signs to make runners laugh. Such signs include, “You run better than the government.”

While there are small pockets along the way where there are no spectators, the sheer crowds of people lining the streets at the busy segments more than make up for it.

Runners in costume also brought a smile to my face. The one that made me really laugh, was a runner dressed up as the Brandenburg Gate. I thought it was quite funny.

The kilometer markers, however, were a bit off because of GPS signals interfering with the buildings along the route. This made it a bit challenging for me to see the exact pace that I was running at, but I tried to use my watch as a guide, and relying on body feel to confirm that the watch is accurate.

I was still running strong and holding pace at 21km – 30km and sticking to my gel and energy strategy. I was feeling good and felt that I could hold this pace for the whole race. I was on track for a personal best.

There was a Maurten gel station at 27.5km. I took this as an opportunity to refuel and grabbed some gels.

I finished all my salt water at about 28km. I think I may have overestimated my constant sipping of the drink during the race. Probably I should have brought some salt tablets as well as a backup.

At 34km, things weren’t looking so good. Cramp. I wondered if it was because of the lack of salt. My pace slowed. But I grit my teeth and forced myself to keep it together. I could feel the personal best slowly fading from my grasp.

I think I managed to tolerate quite well in the last few kilometres, with the voracious crowd cheering me on from 37km all the way to the finish line. With every step, the crowd got louder and more infectious, and I felt as though I really could not walk, even though I was in pain inside.

Finally, at long last, I saw the Brandeburg Gate.

Passing through the Brandenburger Gate meant that there was 500m left to go. The Brandenburger Gate is not the finishing line.

I continued running and I saw the finish line up ahead.

I tried to grit my teeth and pick up the pace.

Finally the finish line loomed.

03:46:15 hours.

Sub 3:50.

It was 4 minutes off my personal best, but I’m still happy, as this is an improvement over my past few marathons where I barely went under 4 hours by the skin of my teeth.

The collection of entitlements was quite smooth. We received a goodie bag containing fruits, chips and chocolates and the finisher medal was hung around my neck.

It was quite a search to relocate my baggage after the run, as the layout of the finisher village was quite confusing.

Once reunited with my belongings, I then went off to find my friends who were also running the marathon. We were all in high spirits and quite happy, as we had all completed a marathon – an epic achievement in itself.