Berlin brought the heat, but our hometown Hamptons Run Club brought the heart to the Berlin Marathon on Sept. 21. The 51st running of the world marathon major was the hottest on record, with temperatures near 80 degrees and high humidity.
When temperatures rise above 60, runners start to slow down, typically adding 20 to 30 seconds per mile for every 5-degree increase. In other words, a marathoner who usually runs 9:00 per mile would have slowed to almost 11:00 per mile in Berlin.
That certainly wasn’t the case for 2015 East Hampton High School graduate, Alyssa Bahel, who set a personal best in Berlin by 22 seconds, finishing in 3:09:53.
“Berlin was incredible. It was a really hot day, but I’m stoked I was still able to set a personal record with a 3:09 finish. My long-term goal is to eventually break three hours and complete all seven world marathon majors,” Bahel said. Those seven races are Boston, Chicago, New York, Berlin, London, Tokyo, and the newest major, Sydney, which was just added this year. Next up for Bahel: the New York City Marathon on Nov. 2. She’ll only rest for about a week before getting right back to training.
Edwin Garcia, the founder of the Hamptons Run Club, and his wife, Leidy Jaramillo, clocked in at 4:52:25 and 5:18:26 respectively: strong performances for their first marathon. Garcia repeatedly told me he was disappointed with his finish, though I know someday he’ll realize how well he ran in a heat wave.
“I battled cramping legs and the urge to stop, but step by step I pushed through. Crossing that finish line reminded me that the marathon isn’t just about speed — it’s about resilience, grit, and refusing to quit when your body begs you to,” Garcia said.
The four of us were part of the American Cancer Society’s Team DetermiNation, which raised over $537,000 in the fight against cancer. I was especially honored to support the team, having beaten breast cancer in 2024.
But my marathon journey took an unexpected detour and I never made it to the starting line in Berlin. At the pre-race pasta dinner my husband, Scott Roslyn, collapsed and went into cardiac arrest. He was rushed into emergency surgery to repair a hole in his heart and remove a hematoma.
He’s making a miraculous recovery thanks to the incredible doctors at Charité Hospital, especially Evgenij Potapov and our Hamptons Run Club family. I’m eternally grateful to Carlos and Diana Perez of East Hampton who stayed at the hospital with me until I was able to see Scott come out of emergency surgery and know he survived. Their daughter, Laura, finished the marathon in 3:37:26 in spite of sleeping terribly the night before, waking regularly to check if Scott was all right. Perez says the heat was tough, but she pushed as hard as she could, and was happy with her time.
There is a saying made famous by the Nike Global Running Coach Chris Bennett: “This is about running. This is not about running.” For our group of runners from East Hampton traveling to Berlin for the first time, that was overwhelmingly true. This marathon was a test of physical and mental strength, but above all, it was about heart: the one in my husband that thankfully continues to beat, the one at the center of our run club that makes it more of a family than a club, and the heart of this beautiful city, Berlin, that gave more than 55,000 runners from 160 countries the hot, sweaty run of a lifetime.
I’ll be back next year to finish what I started.
