Berlin Marathon

We are a little slow getting posted on the wonderful trip that we had last month. I think I will just have to do it in pieces. So, tonight, BERLIN!

Here is the map of the marathon course that we RAN....

We got there the Friday before the Marathon and got to do some sightseeing. To the left is the KDW- a huge department store, the equivalent of London's Herrods. The banner they had up was a little to showy- so Erik is changing the rating of this pic to "G".

This Cathedral was bombed out during WWII, and it was left as a memorial. I guess there was more of it left, but not all of it was stable to be left. It is kind of cool. The new Church they built next door is a 1960's modern thing that is very weird looking.

Alot of the stores along Kurfurstendamm, (big shopping district) had running displays. One even had this count down to the Marathon!

Saturday morning, the runners- Erik, Dad, Scott and me, plus the boys, headed to the Marathon Messe to pick up our numbers and eat pasta! They had the expo at the old Tempelhof airport. (see The Bourne Supremacy to see that airport!) Nathan liked the airplanes they had there. This picture to the left is a runner's version of the Brandenburg Gate.

Nathan and Opa by the airplane. I was surprised how many people were taking pictures of it. I thought it was only cool for a 4 year old! We enjoyed our pasta out in the sun. Daniel slept in his stroller for most of the time.

After we finished there, Opa and Erik took the boys back to the apartment, and Scott and I took off to Checkpoint Charlie. We went to the museum there and got to see a chunk of the old wall.




The plaque below shows how Berlin is marking where the wall used to be. It was kind of cool the next day because we ran over the old wall 3-4 times.

The street crossing lights below are the East Berlin version. Now, the last time I was in Berlin (2001 to do the 1/2 marathon with my dad), I didn't see these lights anywhere. I think they are sporadically installing these for the tourists. They are pretty cute though!

Now, about the Marathon! The night before, we went to an Italian restaurant. It was very good, but I swear I got food poisoning! I felt so sick later that night and for the first hour or so of the race. Maybe it was just nerves, but if felt like more than that. We got to the start area of the marathon around 8 am, and had a hour to drop off our bags, go to the port-a-potty(me- ALL the men just use the bushes!), and get to our start zone. We got there around the start time. We saw the balloons get released when it started, but we didn't cross the start line for 20 minutes! There were a lot of runners- approx. 40,000! It was a very cool atmosphere. Lots of people cheering and music. We were movin' pretty good til km 5 (about 3 miles in). Dad stepped off a curb, twisting his ankle. He was amazing though- he walked for awhile and then kept going. He found out a few days later he had broken his leg. He finished his 10th Berlin marathon though.


These are pics that mom took at the 1/2 point when she and the boys and Anneliese met us. They had spent the morning at Legoland, and then taken the train to meet us. We had to wait almost 10 minutes, but it was worth it to see our cute boys!

I was really struggling at this point- I didn't think that I could do another 21 km, but my 'positive affirmations' from one of my nursing classes came in helpful! Once we got to 30 km, I figured I would make it. So I felt good between 30-35km. Then it got kind of hard again. But, it was so exciting once we got to the straight away before the finish and could see the Brandenburg Gate, it felt pretty good. We all crossed the finish together, with a time of 6:06. (6 hours, 6 minutes)

It was so nice to walk and sit and eat at the end. The weather had been perfect all day long, warm around 70. We showered in the tents they had set up- that felt so good! Then we just lay on the grass and relaxed. It is a pretty good feeling to have done a marathon. It was so great to be with Scott and my dad and my bro. I don't know when I will do another one, but it really is something worth doing.