You two are too hard on yourselves. You should just enjoy the runs.

My goal in Berlin was 02:38 and I finished in 02:42. While I missed my goal, I reduced my pace slightly directly from the start due to the heat 🔥 as I knew 02:38 pace would not be sustainable for me that day. Managed to run fairly steady all the way (fasted km was 3:45/km and slowest was 3:56/km), but this was physically the hardest Marathon and mentally a tough challenge not to drop out. During training I use carbon plated shoes for key sessions only, but yes I even use them in training and have a good experience with that.

Ben, the blurry image actually worked great. We see things blurry after the long runs or races, and the fact that you looked slight blurry made a perception that the video was made right after the race when everyone is still tired. There were no reason to be sorry about that, everything looked well!

The HEAT! That is a defining metric.

The focus is fine! Those leaves are super crisp on screen!

Been running for 44+ years. While my days of turning the legs over in anger are behind me, experience has taught me a lot. Like, there's days feeling like the hammer and days feeling like the nail. Some days will feel like a taco being hit by a sledgehammer.

For me, the running math calculations is how I distract me from the pain of a tough pace. I love hearing how things go wrong though, just to normalize and help learn from it all.

The biggest mistake was not adjusting the target to fit the conditions. One of the basic rules of running for time if you ask me. Living in Thailand is irrelevant, yes, more used to the heat  so less likely to bomb out, but you will still run significantly slower. Youre not racing Cape Town it seems, but the wrong day in October can get very hot. I live here. Thats part of the reason why the 2026 race is moving to May, hopefully as a Major.

Great breakdown. Instead of just blaming it on the heat and the chaotic start, you looked at everything.

Mary, I would say though it wasn't a PB time, it was a PB race/effort. Given the heat you probably lost 10 seconds per KM, which is 7 minutes over a marathon, which puts you under 3:10.

That's life! We don't always reach our goals as we expected or planned. Thank you for processing this personal outcome. Good lessons for us.

Many influencer runners I track did miss their target due to heat.

Thanks for your honest review of your experience in Berlin. I find it super motivating that even the pros can have a challenging time. Your hard work is so stimulating and encourages me to keep going. I am a 57 year old, Capetonian living in Frankfurt, Germany. I managed 1 sub 4 marathon so far and have not given up trying to do it again! Running the Frankfurt Marathon end of October. Love your channel! Thanks you guys! Love to my home country and city! Have a blast in CT and have some Snoek!

You can both be very proud of yourselves! You both put in amazing work and I am positive you will continue to surprise yourselves with how great you will perform in future races. I know you would have preferred to hit those times you set for Berlin and are learning what to adjust. It is important to say you both inspire me so much and I am truly amazed at what you do! Great job!!!!!

Agree on C-plated worn too often. I am now sitting with my tibial injury and I'm dead sure this is because I overtrained in alphaflies 2 and 3.

Maybe the training and fuelling wasn’t wrong, maybe it helped you to turn in a credible performance on a day with tough conditions.
Remember the average times were 20 minute slower.

I love the food and drink reminders on my watch.  They become my mini goals and I stay on schedule with my carbs and electrolytes.

In the words of captain Picard, “…you can do everything right and still loose.”

Mary had a great race! 2nd fastest marathon ever.

If you hadn't mentioned the focus thing I wouldn't have noticed at all. Granted, I watched it on my phone and my vision is garbage.  Still great info. And I must say that even though you didn't reach your goals, you guys still killed it! I hope you're not bummed about it.