Berlin Marathon 2021

I entered the Berlin Marathon in 2019 by winning a prestigious lottery on their website. Then COVID happened and the 2020 Berlin Marathon was cancelled. Fast forward to 2021 and I'm here. 

European Marathons are a little different from American Marathons. For one you have to pay for your finishers shirt and finishers medal. That was a cultural shock for me. "What do you mean I have to pay for my shirt and medal, that's not free?" We Americans are spoiled. 

I tried to train the best I could, but couldn't get over the 21k mark. Not to make a major excuse but I just couldn't find a perfect route for myself. It probably was all mental and lacked a good water station. Germany is not known for their water fountains. For example I would run about 6 miles and then go into the house and take a drink break, then I would go another 4 miles return to the house and take another drink break. I think going back to the house to take a break provided an "I'm done" signal to my brain so my body didn't want to push any further. I hope that is the case as I'm writing this entry. 

The train ride to Berlin was long. It took 7 hours. It was supposed to be 6 hours, but as I waited for my train at the Kaiserslautern Train Station, I saw an email on my phone saying that a police investigation cancelled my connection to Berlin which meant that I had to catch an alternative train. This meant that I would arrive in Berlin at 11pm. I wasn't worried, but when I got to Berlin I was like holy shit, this city is a piece of shit, well that was my initial impression. As the weekend wore on, the city looked like shit, but it's a really cool city. People here are okay, sure I felt that I would be robbed at times, but believe me Paris is much worse. I digress, the people in Berlin spoke really good English and were friendly for the most part. 

Marathon Day

The time has come. It was September 26, 2021 at 6:30 am. I walked over to the Aral gas station and bought milk, water, tea and coffee. I walked back to the hotel to eat my musli. This has been my routine on trips. I always stick to this routine and never deviate from it. 

The day before the marathon I went to pick up my packet at the marathon expo in a place known as the Tempelhof, an old airport used decades ago. The subway to the marathon expo was about 30 minutes. I timed it right to where I got there when it just opened. The lines were pretty long already, so I thought. I would soon find out that was a short line. I needed to show my passport, COVID vaccine, and race card. I prepared a few days before and had everything ready when I got there. The walk to the expo exhibit from the subway station was over 1km, it wasn't that short. The expo was smaller than usual due to COVID protocols. I spent over $120 on clothes, I bought a nice jacket which hopefully I can train in for future runs. That was the highlight of the expo. 

After doing some tourist things, I went back to the hotel, did some stretching and took a great nap. This was a nap 'for the ages'. I felt so good when I woke up. I did more stretching and relaxing, and then I fell asleep again and had a great night's sleep. I woke up at 6:30 am ready to run. 

At 8:30 am, I got ready and walked 1 minute to the station Moritzplatz to wait for the subway. I thought I knew the route to the Brandenburg Gate, but got on the wrong subway car. Luckily I looked at my gps on the subway and saw that I was going the wrong way. That would have been a disaster. I got off and took the correct subway to the Brandenburg Tor station. I didn't worry about paying because if you had a Berlin Marathon running bib, all subway rides were free. There were thousands of people waiting near the starting line. 

To follow COVID protocols, the race times were staggered for marathoners. I was in the last group, the group predicted to end past 5:30. I had to wait over an hour to start, but it was okay because the line for the bathroom was really long, I had to wait 30 minutes in line for the bathroom. 

After I took a piss, I walked with the group to the starting line. It was 10:30 am when we started, we were expecting a pretty hot fall day by Berlin standards around 77 degrees. I knew that wouldn't bother me too much since I was from Hawaii. 

As we started I took my time. The first part of the marathon was nice. I got to see the cathedral, victory column, and other nice structures. However before I hit mile 10 it got kind of boring. There were people to cheer, but I doubt it is how it usually is since they needed to follow COVID protocol. 

My most favorite moment was the British and Irish spectators. As I was running, the spectators were looking at the bibs of the runners and yelling out their names. As I passed they yelled, "Go TONY", and then another group caught on and yelled, "TONY, TONY, TONY". I had this grin on my face like the Cheshire Cat in Alice and Wonderland. I was thinking to myself, my name isn't even Tony. LOL. 

I took breaks at each water station hydrating, eating and catching my breath. I was doing well, albeit I started cramping at mile 14. I usually cramp during that time anyway. Even though I didn't train that hard, my mind knew what was coming, the exhaustion. I stayed true and my mind and body was strong. I couldn't run as fast, but that didn't mean I was struggling. I kept at it and knew that I would finish well over 5 hours but come in before the 6 hour mark. 

The key to me was km 35. I knew when I hit this point that finishing was inevitable and that I would be able to complete this marathon. I started to run/walk after km 35 and it seemed that every km took longer and longer. Eventually my mind got weak at km 39 and I thought I wouldn't be able to finish. I shook that thought off and kept at it. I was walking more than running at this point, but kept true. Eventually I got to the end and knew I was going to finish. The best part was my legs, they were still strong and not too sore.

After the run, I walked to get my medal engraved at the engraving station. When my name was etched into the medal, I went to look for my clothes bag, but took a wrong turn because I was headed to the subway station. I went back to the finish line and found the sign for the clothes bags. I got my clothes and walked to the subway. There were no refreshments after the run, they did give a food bag, but I was so hungry. Thoughts of hunger persisted as I was on the subway. I wanted to eat, but really wanted to take a shower too. I must have eaten a little waffle cracker on my way to the hotel to combat the hunger pane. I took a perfect shower, it felt so good. After my shower I knew I wanted pizza and there was a Dominos Pizza nearby, like only a 5 minute walk away. I walked over to Dominos and ordered a medium pizza knowing fully that I would eat the entire thing. While waiting for my pizza, I bought 2 beers at a nearby liquor store. 

When I got back to the hotel, I ate the entire pizza and drank 1 1/2 beers while doing the bi-weekly google meeting with my family. It was a great recovery night. Initially, I had difficulties sleeping because my body was sore, but eventually fell asleep after midnight. 

The next day, the lactic acid set it. I was in pain, but needed to catch the train back to Otterberg. The 6 hour train ride went quickly because my connecting train was on time. 

In reflection, this was one of the best marathons, not so much the run, but the planning was excellent. All in all, it cost over $1200 for the registration, hotel, transportation, food, souvenirs.