Marathon is an amplifier. It magnifies everything, for better or worse. It amplifies feelings, emotions, fears and insecurities. It doesn’t matter how ready you come to the day for which you have devoted your heart and soul for days, weeks, months. The 24 hours before the marathon you will feel discomfort in one knee, one calf, one foot. You will feel your heartbeats quicken when you clutch a simple piece of paper with a number printed on it in your hands. A number that your friends will enter into the official app to activate tracking and follow you remotely along the way. A sequence of digits associated with a name, your name, that you will hear shouted by the spectators who will flock to the streets and stand behind the barriers to charge you and tens of thousands of others. You’ll feel bursting with energy and won’t see the time to harness it all to the last remaining reserve.
Thoughts, doubts, questions
What about if something should go wrong? Anything, even the most unlikely. What am I going to do? Will I be able to fight back? What about if the movie I made for myself is not projected as I imagined it? Doubts, uncertainties, fears. The marathon amplifies every thought that crosses your mind. That same mind that is responsible for 80% of your race. A very powerful tool that can help or hurt you, deceiving you and making something that is not real seem real.
You feel strong but also fragile. You feel invincible but also fallible. The days, hours, and minutes before the marathon are deadly to handle emotionally. No matter how much experience you have and how many marathons you can boast in your portfolio as an amateur athlete: every time you fall back into the same pattern. For the same reason you know that at the end of one marathon you will already be looking forward to planning the next one. It is a repeating cliché. It is your passion. You have chosen it and decided to accept the positive aspects, which make you feel good, but also the negative aspects, which make you painful and angry. You have chosen it for the good and the bad.
Then what happens is that you start running and everything scales back. Your feet become firmly back on the ground and propel you forward in quick, determined steps. There is only you and the road ahead. It doesn’t matter how many people you have around you. It doesn’t matter that you are taking part in one of the most coveted and renowned marathons in the world. What matters now is to make the film of which you are both director and lead actor.
Give yourself a chance
Running in Berlin was a privilege. Not the most impressive course I have run but certainly one of the most memorable. It made my task easier. I felt like I was running 42 kilometers in the fast lane of the highway on autopilot.
A series of fortunate events occurred at the Berlin Marathon that I was able to use to my advantage: the weather, the fast roads, and the Adizero Boston 12. Everything contributed to the achievement of the final result. I crossed the finish line just beyond the Brandenburg Gate in 3 hours 21 minutes and 44 seconds. A personal best improved by more than 5 minutes since last April when I crossed the finish line of the London Marathon.
I have never felt the desire to visit the city to which I have always attributed injustice, pain and suffering. Although I did not know it, I was judging it, as I often do with people as well. I used to judge a book by its cover. Then I opened it, started reading it, and got hooked on it. I gave Berlin a chance, and Berlin gave me a chance. We got to know and like each other. Together we broke down the walls of time and prejudice.