Dublin after Berlin

splashthecash

I’m doing the Berlin Marathon in September and was toying with the idea of doing the Dublin the following month. What would peoples opinion of this be - good/bad idea? I’ve done a few marathons over the past couple of years but always spread out a year after another.

Krusty_Clown

Surprisingly, this question comes up pretty frequently. General consensus is that is really comes down to the individual. Some have been lucky enough to run even faster in Dublin than their Berlin performance a few weeks earlier, while others just find it a bridge too far and struggle, or drop-out. Best thing to do is to aim for Berlin as your goal marathon, and have Dublin as a 'flight of fancy', with no pressure and just see how it goes on the day. Focus on active recovery and maintenance after Berlin, as there isn't a bit window for training between post-marathon recovery and tapering for Dublin.

martyboy48

I did it last year. I did as KC said above, made berlin the target and dublin a no pressure bonus. The main thing is not going crazy in between trying to get big long runs in. Focus on recovery and listen to your body....

splashthecash

Thanks for the input - yeah, that sounds good - I have done the DCM the past couple of years and really enjoy it's fantastic atmosphere so if I were to do it, it would be just to sample that again.

demfad

splashthecash wrote: »

I’m doing the Berlin Marathon in September and was toying with the idea of doing the Dublin the following month. What would peoples opinion of this be - good/bad idea? I’ve done a few marathons over the past couple of years but always spread out a year after another.

Agree with the 'no pressure' outlook, but give yourself every chance.
You have six weeks between Dublin and Berlin. Strong runners who prefer long events tend to recover quicker than runners who prefer faster stuff. As others have said, make sure you recover well.
For most amateur runners endurance and strenght or not developed enough when they line out for the marathon (look at all the fades from runners who run at on the day marathon effort).
For this reason many runners benefit in endurance and strenght from the actual marathon race.
Books like Pzinginger and Douglas have multi/inter marathon schedule suggestions. Worth having a peek at these.

scheister

ill be doing Dublin and Berlin this year. My plan at the moment is to race berlin and im only going to Dublin for the atmosphere and the medal.

I did Chicago and Dublin together a few years ago racing both 9 seconds in the different. So racing both is possible but depends on the runner themselves and their fitness level.