About a year ago, I signed up for the ballot to win an entry into the Berlin Marathon 2026. Luck is notoriously not on my side, and having lost a few ballots for London or Tokyo marathons, I wasn’t holding my breath. And completely erased my memory of entering that ballot.
How freaked out was I to receive an email in German one evening in late November…
‘Oh damn, I’ve just signed up for the Athens half-marathon in April, and now I’ll have to do another half-marathon in Berlin in September? Oh dear, how did I even win that ballot?!’
Then I looked at the email again.
Read it carefully.
It wasn’t a half-marathon entry.
It was for a full marathon.
DAMN!
I was freaking out for days. What have I done?! How am I going to manage that?! Where do I even start?!
But hey, when you get an entry for one of the six original Abbott Major marathons, you don’t go back. You don’t throw it away. You just figure out how to do it.
Thankfully, I had the time before end of November and mid-May to get my mind in the right place before the physical training and building up mileage would begin.
And that’s where we get to a point why most people shouldn’t do marathons…
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Less than 1% of the global population can say that they have completed at least one marathon in their lifetime. And I know now that it’s not because running 42.2 km on the day is hard. It was actually the easy and the fun part of the whole experience.
What IS hard is what you must do 16-18 weeks prior to the race day. Get the miles in. Do long runs, sometimes challenging yourself every week to a distance you’ve never done before. Forego your Saturdays and weekends in general as you aren’t keen on doing anything other than lying down after your long run. Getting up at 5 am during the heatwave so that you can complete your run before it gets absolutely unbearable. Going for a run at 4:30 am straight after having stayed up the whole night to watch England vs Mexico. Figuring out what would be your fuelling strategy – and feeling like a complete imposter for even using the word ‘strategy’ in such context as you have no idea what you’re doing. Being hungry and tired all the time. So much that even your cat starts accepting the fact she’s not the only one who’s constantly hungry and tired.
There is one thing that helps you pull through, though.
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Your community. Before I joined my running club, I couldn’t even dream of running a marathon. The thought of running even a half-marathon was daunting enough. It used to be for people who were younger/ fitter/ stronger/ with more free time than me.
But then you meet real people who run half-marathons and full ones. And you realise that they might have even less time than you do, might be same age as you are or even older, have their own struggles in life – and still do it! The key difference between you and them is that they directed their energy at doing something great while you’re stuck in coming up with excuses.
Our brains are super-lazy. They would, however, encourage you to match the protocol and the vibes of your community as being a part of one is still wired in as our survival strategy. Which is why the people you surround yourself with matter A LOT! And I’m truly happy and lucky to have been a part of the running sorority and to have made so many ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL friends through running! It would have been impossible to get to Berlin without you, ladies!
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And now, fast forward to the trip. Friday night. Your London Gatwick to Berlin Brandenburg flight is almost entirely made up of other marathoners. You exchange supportive messages and last-minute tips as you queue up to leave the plane and wish each other good luck. What I like about runners is that we cheer each other up in the world designed to drag you down.
You get to the passport control hoping to practise your German with the officer. When he hears ‘Ich wohne in Grossbritanien’ (I live in the UK), he refuses to continue in German and asks ‘Are you here for the marathon? Are you running?’ Two humble ‘yeses’ later, your passport is stamped, and Berlin welcomes you with open arms.
Then there’s the expo at the old airport building where you go to collect your bib. Take a million different pictures. Find your name on the wall, which is a separate challenge. Buy an expensive running jacket from adidas – just because ‘hey girl, you’ve earned it!’ Wander around for hours soaking the atmosphere in. Because if you don’t, you go back in your ‘freaking out’ mode.
Carb loading with pasta. A follow-up with McDonalds’ fries at 9 pm because ‘hey, am I a Belarusian or what?’. And then going to bed at 10 pm because you have a running meetup with about 50 thousand friends in the morning.
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Race day breakfast. Getting dressed and using all of the funny products that non-runners are blissfully unaware of. Putting your bib on. Sending a pre-race picture to your friends with ‘will hopefully see you on the other side’ note.
Getting to the central train station. Befriending a nice lady in the bathroom queue. She lives in Berlin and is visibly worried prior to the race. You are trying to be nice while you’re absolutely freaking out inside.
Getting to your block start. Talking to some other lovely people in yet another bathroom queue. Walking to the start line when the time comes.
And then there it is. You see the countdown – and you are suddenly as calm as if you have been meditating for hours. You hear ’30 seconds’ – and you realise that you have finally reached the point where you trust your training, your fuelling strategy (haha!), your resilience and your mantra. ‘In my mind, my Dad is running with me today’.
And off we go!
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This is probably a good place to talk about Berlin as a city. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. To me, Berlin is a slightly weird friend with ADHD who’s unapologetically himself, unpretentious and doesn’t really care if you like him or not. Until you do like him – then he gets super-excited and wants you to enjoy every single moment when you’re around. I probably wouldn’t want him as a permanent roommate, but the vibes you get hanging out with him are something you won’t find elsewhere!
The people of Berlin are what made the race absolutely amazing! The cheering, people shouting your name (yes, the full one, ‘Katsiaryna’ – thank you, lovely kind gentleman who didn’t stumble upon it!), bringing funny and supportive posters (a shoutout to the lady with the ‘If you think this is hard, try dating in Berlin’ poster – sending you a virtual supportive hug from the single women of London!), singing, playing drums, releasing bubbles. The moment you’d start thinking it was getting too hard, there would be something that the people of Berlin did for you and other runners that would make you smile or laugh – and completely reset your mood.
Then there are other participants. The guy running barefoot (gosh, I hope his feet are OK after that!). The guy who ran in Crocs, and apparently did a fantastic time, good for him! And last but not least, a local Berlin legend – a gentleman who runs with a pineapple balanced on his head. No glue. No fixtures. NADA! Just balancing a pineapple on his head for 42.2 freaking kilometres. You don’t become a local legend for nothing!
And when it gets tough despite all of that, you remind yourself that your Dad is running somewhere with you – even though he passed away 12 years ago. He wasn’t a runner. Gosh, I come from one of the most unsporty families in the world! There were, however, two reasons I wanted to think of my father during that run. First, it was his birthday the day before. And second, he was one of those parents who supported any choice their children would make – as long as that choice was coming from the heart. Not from the society, not imposed by someone else. As long as it was something I wanted deep inside, he would accept and support this choice, even if he had no clue why I would want that.
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Before we talk about the finish line, I should mention I pay a lot of attention to my playlist for the race day. And obviously, my first ever marathon deserved a special finish song.
Normal people typically sprint in the last stretch of the race to get the best possible time. I chose a different strategy (note to self: use a goddamn Thesaurus to find an alternative to the world ‘strategy’, it’s getting ridiculous…). I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. I wanted to soak in the support from the amazing people who were standing there to cheer for me and other runners. I wanted to listen to great music I curated for the last kilometre.
And I wanted to cross the finish line with one specific song – «Прощай, Берлин» (‘Goodbye, Berlin’) by my favourite Russian band, Bi-2.
Which I did.
The emotions you get right after you finish a marathon are incredible. I was sobbing like crazy for the first minute, being absolutely overwhelmed by a mixture of joy, relief, self-pride, gratitude and sense of accomplishment. For the next hour or so, I couldn’t stop smiling. This was certainly one of the best days of my life.
Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.
Would I recommend it to everyone? Absolutely not! Don’t do that, unless you feel it with your gut that this is something that will be exciting for you and that YOU totally want to do. Not your friends, parents, society or whatever. Chase the dreams that make YOU tick.
That’s one of the things my father got right.
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