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Anyone running Berlin marathon
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29th September
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Comments
Sheila Anne
From experience I know that there is hardly any congestion following the start as the course follows the very wide Avenue 17.Juni & Unter den Linden (incl. four major landmarks the Siegesaule, the Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag & Cathedral) for the first 5 kilometres without making a turn. This obviously allows the field to space out quickly and makes for more comfortable running but it does make it very easy to go too fast too soon (as I did on my first visit). Do this and the kilometres 27-35 will be very tough indeed. The roads there are long and straight here, and the scenery isn't as interesting as earlier so it's easy for the mind to wander onto such matters as how much the legs are hurting. It might be surprising to say that I found the Eastern parts of the city far more interesting and therefore the kilometres there seemed to slip by more quickly. The worst parts are definitely to be found where the course runs through the Western suburbs of Steglitz & Zehlendorf.
But once through that section there is a superb finish to look forward to running the full length of the Kurfurstendamm. It's a long straight, and slightly uphill, but the support is good and it's excellent to put in a really strong finish if you're up to it.
You'll be hard pushed to find a better Marathon than this - beats London out of sight - and I'm sure you enjoy it.
Best of luck, hope it goes well.
Everyone around me at work has colds and flu symptoms so I'm shovelling as much Vit C down me throat as poss to try not to get anything. My partners a school teacher and she's always telling the kids not to come near her when they've got colds and I've got a race in case she catches and gives it to me!
All that I would add to what has been said already is: (i) they don't hand out sports drinks on the course, just water and black tea (I think that may be because the race is sponsored by the local water company) - so if you want a sports drink you need to take your own; and (ii) don't do what I did one year, and eat the chunks of apple which they hand out at the drinks stations - soon after I got the most excrutiating stomach cramps and ended up walking most of the second half of the course.
As for avoiding a cold about now, I find the effervescent Vit C tablets ("Redoxon" I think) are great, especially helpful in preventing any flu/cold after the run.
people are organised into expected finishing times. Last year when I ran it because I'd had no previous (it was my first marathon) I was right at the back but because of the really wide start I didn't have to wait ages to cross the start which was good, and also they use the champion chip net timing so your time is based on the second you cross the start to the second you hit the finish.
The only thing I found strange was I'd expected some sort of gun/siren to go off and I just don't remember any last year, just sort of shuffling and increasing pace towards the start.
Theres a good warm up session available from about 8 o'clock plus the free beer at the end!!