I hereby declare that what I say here is the truth, nothing but the truth, and an omission about a specific blister location.   Day 4 post marathon. I have been itchiing to remember the day, and tried hard to let some time pass so some refrection could happen, but not too long as to forget details of that day.  However, I am still as excited as I was the moment I finished that run so here goes a full recount of that day, in chronological order. In my long runs through London I have been listening to a zillion of marathon advice podcasts, and learnt some things. One of these was to have a race plan (yeah, that's something that doesn't occur to me, generally), with contingencies, and visualise how to solve those situations without dipping into negativity. Similar advice was to have an Ideal race plan, where everything goes absolutely right, and a contingency race plan, someting to hit on if not feeling that great for whatever reason.  The Race plan Ideal plan was to attempt a 4:

Pint at the handy, medal dangling on my neck, on top of my finisher t-shirt.  Just back at the hotel lobby after having dinner with the familee. The dinner was heavy meaty and delicious. We didn't reserve a table for tonihht as I didn't see a life past the Berlin marathon, so didn't plan for it. We got turned down in places as no spaces, but in one, an American couple offered to share their table with us - Alex and Lisa, thank you!! Still digesting the day and so much to say.  I loved absolutely every second of it. For zero seconds did I think or feel "this is sh/t, uncomfortable,  too much etc". My mind is flooded with "best moment" of the day, and it's hard and unfair to pick one.  But if I had to absolutely pick one or else no beer for the rest of my life, it would be reaching the Branderburg gate, turning around, stopping for a second and not being able to contain my absolute delight that I was there, under these circumstances, and rested, full o