29th – 30th – Berlin, post-run

When exiting the shower it was only early afternoon and not having plans until after 1800 where I’d be going with the group to the TV tower for dinner the obvious choice would be to sit – or lie – down and relax. But I am not a clever man. Instead I considered it… impolite… to be in Berlin and not see the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe so once again I was off, took the u-bahn and spent some time around the monument, wandered speedily through the small museum below (yes, it was as depressing as you’d think) before I returned to the hotel and met up with the group.

The monument. 

The view from the tower was great, and the restaurant was rotating so we got to see in all directions while sitting down. The food was pretty good, too, but it took so long for them to start serving, which felt a bit weird as they had known of the booking (which included a set menu) for months in advance. The windowsill was static, it was only the area with the tables that rotated. Some people hadn’t noticed that so first we saw a handbag slowing passing by soon followed by a glass of champagne. And a distress-looking woman running by, soon after returning clutching her handbag. The floor below was an observation deck but due to the indoor lighting it was impossible to not get reflections when trying to take photographs.

The restaurant in the tower.

Neptunbrunnen (Neptune fountain) in front of Rotes Rathaus ("Red Cityhall").

The next morning we had breakfast in the hotel (they had waffles!) before checking out and starting the drive back north towards the ferry. Very minor traffic and otherwise nothing out of the ordinary made the drive home quite uneventful. There was no golden retriever like before, but there was a fair share of people walking as if they too had been running yesterday’s marathon.

Overall a very nice trip, everything considering. If you want to try doing a marathon Berlin is a good place to start – it’s flat, a lot of fairly straight lines and rarely any sharp turns. And a great atmosphere, too. Due to the weather there weren’t as many out cheering as you’d expect from all the stories you hear, but there were never a point where there wasn’t at least a few standing around cheering you on. Or wondering why on earth you’d do this to yourself. Which, I’ll be honest, I also did think now and then along the way.

Full album can be seen here.

29th – Racing from west to east and back

The travel company I travelled with had a bus leaving the hotel to the starting area at 0645 so it was an early start for the day. But we were off on time and 15-ish minutes later we arrived at the Victory Column where we left the bus and walked the rest of the way. From there it took 20 minutes to get to an entrance, and from there you had a bit again to reach the main area, the large lawn in front of the Bundestag. I decided to making my way to my starting area – it was still early, but not knowing the area and it being expansive I’d rather stand there waiting than suddenly being in a hurry and not being able to find my way. I ended being there for almost 1½ hours and freezing towards the end (standing still in shorts/t-shirt in less than 13°C is not recommended) but it was worth it – especially when seeing how packed it got in the last half hour. 

But finally it was on: at 0915 the elite and fastest were started and 10 minutes later we got to go. It started off really well, and I was still feeling optimistic since a half marathon 2 weeks ago I completed in record time (for me) 1:43. The weather was quite grey and it never got warmer, but despite the occasional drizzles it never felt too cold. The run had more than 44000 starters so especially in the beginning it was quite congested. Luckily there was plenty of room on the streets until the runners were a little more spread out.

The first kilometer took you past the Victory Column.

Photo taken by Sportograf.com.

Passing by Koncerthaus Berlin where we had lunch yesterday.

Photo taken by Sportograf.com.

Unfortunately it turned out things started out a little too well – having passed the halfway point it didn’t take long before my legs decided that this marathon was a very bad idea. It meant that I went from a calculated finish time of around 3:40 to 3:45, then to 3:50 and finally finishing at 3:58:16, half a minute from my PR. I ended up being 2915 out of 4915 in my class (top 59,31%), 15939 out of 30775 men (top 51,79%) and 19402 out of 44064 overall (top 44,03%), and while I wasn’t too happy about not getting a new PR putting it up like that I'll admit it doesn’t look too bad.

Coming through Brandeburger Tor makes you tingle (and it's not the feeling of exhaustion).

Photo taken by Sportograf.com.

Photo taken by Sportograf.com.

Crossing the finish line. 3 moods are represented. The overly happy one on the right, me feeling happy it's over (but still happy for doing it) and the one in the bottom left corner who has seen death.

Photo taken by Sportograf.com.

The route itself was nice and you did get to see a fair bit of (the central part of) Belin and the route didn’t repeat itself along the way. The last 500m felt quite amazing as you ran up towards and through Brandeburger Tor and the view was great despite the bad weather. Finally crossing the finishing line I slowed down (even more – to a walk) and my legs thought it would be a great idea to get all wiggly. It took a moment to get everything under control again before continuing through the finish area, get some snacks, drinks and most importantly my medal.

I returned to the Victory column where the bus would be transporting us back to our hotels – the walk back took close to an hour on my tired legs. But I got there, got into the bus, sat down and soon after could take a nice, much needed, not shower.

27th – 28th of September – Berlin, pre-race

As my parents wanted to join me on my trip to Berlin, in part to socialize and cheer, and in part to do their own tourist-y thing. I was picked up around 0900 and we were off southbound towards Germany. Taking the ferry from Gedser to Rostock gave a break on the drive, and here we also met a very sociable golden retriever that wanted to greet everyone who passed by, but being kept on a very short leash by its owner it spent most of the time sulking and looking sad on the floor. Reaching the German coast, we continued and reached Berlin just to end up in the middle of rush hour with traffic as heavy as the rain that had started coming down.

When arriving we started passing by Tempelhof Airport where the run expo was held. Here I walked through multiple hangars and ID checks and past multiple stalls selling anything running related and large crowds before reaching the bib-number pickup. Having survived the chaos I returned to the car, and a short drive later we arrived at our hotel at around 1800. A few minutes later we met up with my sister, brother-in-law, sister and niece who had arrived a few hours earlier and went out to a nearby restaurant that made some delicious schnitzels.

You entered the Expo through the check-in area (on the right) and left past the luggage claim on the right.

Saturday morning I joined the breakfast run with about 10.000 others. We ran a short 6km route from Charlottenburg Palace to the Olympic stadium. The run was with everyone together in one large group, both tomorrow’s runners, any supporters wanting to join an anyone else feeling for a morning run. This meant that the running pace was gentle – so gentle that in the beginning we were moving on the narrow line between walking fast or running slowly, neither feeling comfortable. The distance was run in almost 43 minutes and being among the first arriving turned out to be a huge advantage; there was no queue when picking up fruit, snacks and drinks but the queues quickly increased in length when the main part of the group arrived.

Checkpoint Charlie.

The Olympic Stadium.

The Olympic Stadium from the outside.

The Olympic Pool.

Coming back to the hotel I had an hour’s rest before heading out for dinner. I ended up at a nearby Italian sports bar/restaurant that served an acceptable pasta and an absolutely fantastic cannoli. When wanting to pay she looked at me and said “sorry – only cash”. What is this? The 18^th century? Oh well, we Danes are getting close to barely having any cash due to most transactions being done by card, while the Germans do tend to still prefer cash, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. Took my card, left my wallet, went down to an ATM not even 100 meters down the street to get some cash, return to pay and retrieve my wallet, and return back to the hotel.