Berlin Marathon

Just sitting at the Berlin Main Train Station waiting for the train to Dresden to depart and taking the opportunity of an update. Here what I emailed to Epi and Clown after the marathon on Sunday:
Guys - thanks for you texts, not quite what I had aspired to (despite the senility bonus), but still a PB and under 3:30, so I'm happy. Right now I am back in our apartment after a shower and with my feet up and am giving you the heads up on the next blog which I will get to when I get to an internet cafe.
Anyway, as you could tell from the sms I was spot on track for 3:20 at the HM mark, but then it all fell apart a bit.
From about 24k I was starting to get stomach cramps and felt like throwing up a couple of times. That lasted for pretty much the rest of the race, except for when I had what felt like a stitch but further up right underneath the right ribcage. Anna thinks it's a gallbladder problem, and I have experienced a few times before over the last month, so will need to have it checked out. Also, I think I was a bit underdone in the long runs and generally the last month was a bit of a disaster trainingwise.
Anyway, I don't think I went in too hard in the first half as I did not blow up. I set the 405 to keep me on track at 4:42/k which is 1% off, but proved to be correct overall. Now I just have to figure out (yes, at my age and a degree notwithstanding) how to press the bl...dy button properly at the finish.
Having said that, although the organisation left a few things to be desired (racenumber collection and crowd management today), within minutes of finishing you could get an interim certificate with the splits:
5k: 23:58 - 4:48/k average
10k: 47:43 - 4:45/k ave from prev split
15k: 1:11:15 - 4:42/k
20k: 1:35:00 - 4:45/k
25k: 1:58:55 - 4:48/k
30k: 2:23:20 - 4:54/k
35k: 2:48:51 - 5:06/k
40k: 3:15:07 - 5:15/k
42.195: 3:26:12 - 5:04/k
I liked the sms system, not that it made any difference to me but Anna and the kids were following me by U-& S-Bahn and found the going tough. At least this way they knew I was still in it: did you notice the note at the bottom of the HM notice: laeuft noch: still running - very funny indeed.
Pretty much congested with everyone else having this great idea. Anna is now an expert on the Berlin Public Transport system!
Now, this morning it was REALLY crowded. I waa about 200m from the start line and it took me exactly 4 minutes to cross it.
As promised I have taken some pictures which I will put up on my blog eventually. It's not that easy taking pictures when running, a couple of odd angles and the shakes, but it was well worth having the camera with me.
On a very positive note, although both knee and heel are sore now, neither gave me any trouble today. I was getting a bit of a sore knee in the last few weeks so I was a bit worried about it.
Ok, that's it for now. On Tuesday we are off to Dresden, then Prague, Nuernberg & lastly Zuerich. Unfortunately the Dalai Lama had to cancel the teachings in Switzerland for which we had tickets, but Anna and I will find something to do (a run in the mountains? Haha!)
PS: Sorry about any typos, the keyboard on my phone was designed by someone whose hands were the size of a mouse's.
Two days on and whilst I feel I should have been able to push more, I realise I am only saying that as the cramps have long gone. Anyway, I should also mention that I have hardly been sore and we were trapsing around Berlin yesterday as if nothing special had been done on Sunday. Both knees were a bit unstable on Sunday and occasionally yesterday (strangely the left one more so than the right), but otherwise, I felt worse after the C2S HM four weeks ago. How about that?!
Ok, I will now take it very easy and not do much until we're back. Rottnest is still on but I just plan to cruise there if I feel like doing it. Doing 3:30 again would just be nice.