After running London back in April, I was also lucky to get a ballot place to run Berlin this year, as I’ve decided to give the big 6 a go and try to get my six star medal being able to tick 2 of these events off this year was a great bonus.
Having been to Berlin before I know its pretty flat but can also be rather rainy. We arrived on the Thursday night and settled into our hotel which was a nice short walk to the start line. Friday we headed over to the Expo to pick up my number, this was held in the old Templehoff airport. It was chaos, huge crowds of people everywhere a massive queue to get into the bit to get my number, finally get into a line having looked around wondering where I needed to be then realise they print your number off so you can join any of the queues, then off to the next queue to pick up my finisher t-shirt! Finally battle my way to the merchandise area grab a hoodie and another running top then look at the massive queue and think do I really want to bother, I’m not proud to say I couldn’t bare the thought of joining the back of the queue so snuck in near the front without anyone realizing.
We headed outside and grab a bite to eat before heading back to our hotel and less people!
Saturday a nice walk to the start line to check out where I need to go and far less people around so managed to buy a wet weather jacket from the small merchandise store, off for some carb loading for lunch to get out of the rain.
Sunday morning, it looks nice so down to breakfast then final kit check and off to the start line with several thousand people, Dave leaves me at the entrance and he heads off to find a spot to see me out at the 7k marker. I join the toilet queue for the first of many trips in the next hour. Lots of different voices and nationalities around me as we spend most of the next hour re-queuing for the loo. I eventually join the pen and get chatting to a nice chap also running Berlin for the first time, we have a short chat before its our turn to cross the start line. We cross the start line an hour after the elites have started and off we go running away from the Brandenburg gate only to return through it some hours later.
It all starts off well and I do my usual go out as hard as I can as I know I’ll slow down during the second half, I see Dave at the 7k mark all smiles but only a few more kilometres after this the heavens open and it starts to pour down with rain, I knew it was going to happen just didn’t know when the weather was horrible and it just kept raining on and off for the rest of the run. I got to the half way point in under half the time I had to finish the race so I was on track to finish under the cut off time of 6 hours 15mins. It was a rather miserable lonely race no-one really wanted to talk to or help each other along, there were some supports but in some areas it was really quiet and rather boring running past apartment blocks and high end shops.
I was hoping the route would take us past some of the sights but we didn’t’ really go past that many until nearer the end. I kept going and hoping I was going to make it checking my watch constantly, calculating how many miles I had left and whether I could do it in the time. Finally we reached Potsdamer Platz, Dave was there to boost my spirits and get a photo of me the trouble is you look left and you can see the Brandenburg gate but you have another couple of miles to go so off we went down the street that seemed to never end before finally turning left and then winding around a few more streets before finally turning the corner and there it was the cobble street just in front of the Brandenburg gate, we pass through it and have 200 metres to go before crossing the finish line. I’ve finally finished in a time of 6 hours 2 mins 27 seconds, I was so pleased to have finished, I head off to get my medal engraved with my time and my warm poncho as I’d opted for that instead of a kit bag then off to find Dave before hobbling back to the hotel.
As we walked back past the Brandenburg gate they’d put barriers up and there were a few runners arguing with security who wouldn’t let them through to finish, this was about an hour after I’d crossed the finish line so if you’re thinking about running Berlin make sure you can finish under the cut off as they are clearly very strict on this.
Now all I need to do is get in to Tokyo, New York, Chicago and Boston and I’ll have done the big 6!