Running the Berlin Marathon from 2 perspectives.
The 2022 Berlin Marathon was the first International Marathon for both of us. With the 2023 race only a week away, a lot of you have reached out asking for advice, recommendations and any tips we had to share. Enjoy our race recap experience and if you have any questions, we are here for you!
Zhenya's Experience
I secured my place in the 2022 Berlin Marathon via lottery. I spent all summer training with the Cara group here in Chicago and felt ready to take on the race in Berlin. I will say, I was coming off an injury, but was feeling strong and had an ambitious goal to run a sub 3:15 marathon (7:25 min/mile pace). A lot of my friends who have run the Berlin marathon in the past, told me it was magical, flat as a pancake and that I was going to PR. My previous PR was from the LA Marathon at 3:21.
Getting There & Accommodations
My husband and I planned a 2 week trip to Germany, flying in and out of Frankfurt airport, spending 5 days with our family in Bavaria before the race, 6 days in Berlin, and a couple more days in Bavaria/Frankfurt before flying back to the States. I found myself doing the last few training/taper runs along the banks of Saale river in a small Bavarian village, and I knew based on the times I was hitting, I was ready.
We drove to Berlin on Thursday 9/22/22, a few days before the marathon. I booked us into a very small hotel in Schoneberg (Hotel Ambiente - a very basic, bare bones hotel in an amazing neighborhood). I have been to Berlin before in 2018, and Sam has been there in 2018 and 2016, we were both familiar with the city. However, my previous trip to Berlin was incredibly emotional, I had a very difficult time there. Needless to say, I was ready to experience the city through the lens of the marathon, and see how it brought people together and celebrated runners from all across the world.
Food
The neighborhood had a few really good pizza, Indian and Thai food options, as well as a Doner Kebab place (my must have when I am in Germany, I can eat one every day). There were also a couple ice cream places, supermarkets (where I bought bananas, yogurt, bread, snacks, etc.). We were also very close to the subway, which was going to be my main mode of transportation the day of the marathon - you get to ride for free with your Bib!
The Expo
Friday 9/23 I went to the expo to pick up my bib and my shirts (I ordered 2 shirts when I registered for the race, a race day T-shirt isn’t included in the entry fee). The Berlin marathon had fabric bracelets that were fuzed onto all of the participants as we entered the expo. I specifically chose mine to be loose so I could easily slip it off after some runners had theirs on tight - a matter of personal preference. The line to pick up bibs was pretty long, but moved quickly. I am sure a lot of you know, the expo is at the old airport hangar and is the coolest expo space I’ve ever been to. The expo itself is okay, I am not an expo junkie, I don’t need to see all the vendors. Once you’ve been to one world marathon major expo, you’ve been to them all.
The bib is printed on the spot. The man helping me didn’t speak very good English, he accidentally inverted the numbers when punching in my registration number on the iPad, and I had to correct him and tell him that the name he pulled up on the screen wasn't mine. Because the bib is printed right there, it doesn’t include a chip. The chip is old school and goes on your shoe. Make sure to return it after the marathon otherwise you will get charged 6 euro for it. And don’t forget to get the pins for the bib, they will be in a box next to the bib pick up station. I forgot to grab them and had to walk back all the way to the end, because I didn’t pack any.
After the expo we spent a lot of time in the Mitte area by the Brandenburg gate. There was the Hall of Fame ceremony later that evening, and we got to see a lot of world athletes, including Keira D’Amato and Eliud Kipchoge. This is also where you can find your name on the wall (not at the expo) and shop merchandise.
Saturday before the race I met up with one of my friends who lives in Berlin, we spectated the roller blade race, walked in the Tiergarten and went to KaDeWe. It was a perfect way to spend the day getting my mind off the race and catching up with a friend.
Race Day
Sunday morning came before I knew it. I woke up on the hour every hour, and then it was finally time to get going. I had a banana, a German bread roll, written directions on how to get to the subway (I left my phone with Sam), my water bottle with LMNT and my Maurten gels.
Once I got to the subway stop, there were a lot of runners around me, and it was easy to get to the start by following the crowd. There was an older gentleman from Denmark who was wearing a shirt saying that was his 200th marathon. I talked to him for a bit, he also told me he had a 100th half coming up later that year in Spain! He started running marathons when he was 13!
I got to the corral in no time and I met 3 great women - 2 from the states and one from Canada. We all hung out together and chatted. The porta potties were right outside the coral, the lines were typical for any world major marathon, a lot of men just used the bathroom “behind that tree”. Then it was 9:15 and the waves started going. I spotted 3:15 pacers (they wear really big signs on their backs) in my corral and decided to go for it.
The entire race I barely looked up, tapping into my inner strength to stay with the group. Our pace group was surprisingly small. I think we had 10 when we started (including the 2 pacers), there were maybe 5 when we finished (again including the pacers). The entire race is in kilometers, there are no mile markers (which I knew and it didn’t really matter to me). When I say I barely looked up, I mean up and around buildings and spectators. I wanted to stay focused and not waste any energy. These are the only things I remember from the course, which now as I list them out seems like a lot:
5K marker, it came up a lot faster than I thought
12K East Berlin, looking up and seeing Restaurant/Cafe Moscow - I knew we were in East Berlin
Half way point - seeing Sam and his dad
Bridge over Spree - km 38
Mall of Berlin
Gendarmenmarkt square and cheerleaders
Aeroflot building which also came up a lot faster than expected
The Brandenburg gate and gunning it!
The pacers were absolutely incredible, they didn’t realize I wasn’t German, so at some point I had to tell them, because they were trying to make conversation. One of the guys Pirmin (we follow each other on Instagram now) helped me out a lot during the race when my bib (the Berlin bibs are giant) came off on one side, and I handed him my water bottle to hold while I re-pinned my bib on the run. He also told me we were going to make it sub 3:15 with maybe one kilometer to go, so I could really push it and make it across the finish line to hit my goal. Another thing about pacers in Berlin, they run on the sides of the road - one on the right, one on the left. They help make way to go through the crowd by raising their arm and notifying runners ahead that we are coming through, and call out water stops (water stops are only on the right hand side in Berlin).
After I crossed the finish line, I hugged one of the girls who was a part of our group. Her name is Alison and she is from the UK! We got our picture taken by the marathon officials for the marathon publication and we still stay in touch!
As I reflect on my Berlin marathon experience, achieving my goal was incredibly rewarding, but it is the people that I met and the connections that I made that I will remember the most.
Janet's Experience
I was lucky enough to secure a lottery spot in the Berlin Marathon on the first try. The Berlin Marathon is unique in that it allows for lottery entries as a ‘team’ (a team can be any group of 2 or more runners), and lottery spots are rewarded to the entire team if it wins. A friend and I entered as a team of 2, and we were so excited to run our first international marathon in this beautiful city!
Travel & Accommodations
We flew a Lufthansa flight to Berlin, connecting via Munich. We took the redeye flight leaving Chicago Wednesday night, arriving in Germany Thursday morning, so that we would have a couple days for our body to acclimate to the time difference. Although I barely slept on the flight (I rarely ever do), I felt tired but fine the next day. The trick was to stay awake all Thursday (no naps!) and by Thursday night, I was so tired that I fell asleep by 9pm local time and got a full night’s sleep. By the time I woke up on Friday morning, I was on Germany time.
We stayed at the Berlin Hilton in the Mitte district, about a 15-minute walk to the marathon start village. To be honest, I wanted to minimize things I had to think about in a new city, and I wanted to stay in a central location that was within walking distance of the start and finish line. Our room was pretty standard for a Hilton, and it overlooked the Gendarmenmarkt Square across the street. It was a great hotel for access – around the corner from popular shopping street Friedrichstrasse, a 9-minute walk to Checkpoint Charlie, a 17-minute walk to Brandenburg Gate, and other popular tourist destinations. There were plenty of restaurants in the area and I was able to find multiple options to carb-load. The hotel is popular with Berlin Marathon runners, so it was nice to be around others who were excited and geared up for the same event. We met so many runners from around the world and it was fun to hear their stories and their goals!
Food
There are plenty of restaurant options in the popular Mitte district – from pasta to pretzels to noodles – and lots of chocolate shops! After checking in on Thursday, we walked 5 minutes to a nearby noodle spot called LIU Nudelhaus, where we ordered noodle soups. It was the perfect comfort meal after a day of traveling, providing plenty of carbs, warm soup, and some veggies. Afterwards, we walked back to the hotel, and stopped by 2 chocolate shops along the way for some dessert – Rausch Chocolate House, Berlin’s premier chocolatier with a wide selection of chocolates, chocolate sculpture masterpieces, and a chocolate café, and Neuhaus, a Belgian chocolate store known for their decadent pralines. I also went to a local supermarket where I stocked up on water and bananas.
Again in an effort to simplify, we had all of our breakfasts at the hotel lounge. The lounge is an easy option for breakfasts and snacks throughout the day, and can be accessed through your credit card, hotel points, or through purchase. I am not a huge breakfast eater, so the standard continental breakfast - eggs, charcuterie and cheese platters, a variety of breads and pastries, juices, coffee/teas - was enough for me. If you prefer a bigger breakfast buffet or made to order omelets, the hotel restaurant Beletage is also an option. There are plenty of good restaurants outside the hotel offering breakfast and brunch, like Café Fleury (French menu with croissants, French toast, quiche Lorraine), House of Small Wonder (western café with Japanese twist offering croissant French toast, biscuit benedict), and mogg (NY Jewish deli-inspired offering shakshuka, pastrami sandwiches, and NY cheesecakes.)
For lunch and dinner, we ventured a little further into the city. Berlin has so many dining options that it is easy to find something for everyone. My favorite Italian spot was Coccodrillo, which was recommended by a friend who lives in Berlin. It has a whimsical décor inside and a huge terrace outside overlooking a park. Importantly, it offers delicious Neapolitan-style pizza (I love when the crust is so thin that I can eat the whole pizza by myself!) and a great selection of homemade pastas. Another popular Italian place is Culaccino (also recommended by a Berlin native.)
Berlin also offers and impressive array of Asian restaurants, especially noodle houses, and we were able to sample Pad Thai and other Thai rice/noodle dishes (at Good Time restaurant – 5 minute walk from hotel), Vietnamese food (at Monsieur Vong), and fresh made hand-pulled noodles (at the ever-popular Wen Cheng.)
For snacks, we feasted on giant soft Bavarian pretzels, which are available on every other street! It is the perfect carb-loading food – simple carbs, easy to digest, and relatively low fat so we can eat more!
The Expo
I recommend getting to the Expo early, on Thursday if at all possible. My friend and I went at 9am on Friday and there was already a huge crowd waiting to get in (we heard the crowds only got worse as the day went on.) We waited for about 45 minutes to get in as there was a bit of a people traffic jam at the ID checkpoints, where you show your identification, and a cloth bracelet is affixed to your wrist (the bracelet gets you into the marathon start village - you cannot remove the bracelet until after the marathon!)
The Berlin Marathon Expo is located in the old Tempelhof airport. You really get a sense of history as you walk in, seeing the old departure display boards, and a few World War-era aircrafts. After you collect your bib, there is the standard expo with various booths and vendors, and a large Adidas pop-up store selling the marathon gear of the year. Get to the Adidas pop-up early if there is a particular shirt or jacket style/size you are looking for. It is not uncommon for them to run out by the second day, especially in women’s sizes. The checkout line can be long but there are self-checkout stations that help the line move faster.
We traveled to the Expo by Uber but it can also be reached via public transit – “Platz de Luftbrucke” station on U-bahn or “Tempelhof” on S-bahn.
Race Day
Berlin Marathon is a flat, fast course with wide roads and few turns. There is a reason why so many records are made here! Last fall, Eliud Kipchoge ran the 2022 Berlin Marathon with a world record time of 2:01:09, breaking his own previous record. While I finished the race hours later, it was super cool to have run in the same race as the greatest marathon runner of all time! From a logistics perspective, it really helps that it starts and ends near the Brandenburg Gate (vs a point to point course.)
Porter potties
Plan to get there at least 1-2 hours early before your corral start time. The grounds are fairly large, and the porter-potty lines are long. There do not seem to be as many porter-potties at the Berlin Marathon as other world majors (i.e. Chicago, NYC) and we ended up waiting over 45 minutes. For men, they do separate urinals outside the porter-potties so if you are not shy, that is an option for you.
After the gear check area, you can proceed to the start corrals at your time allotted. There is a drop-off location for any unwanted clothing you want to shed before you start the race. Weather on marathon day was a perfect 50F and sunny – beautiful for running 26.2 miles, but it can be a bit chilly for some at the start. I wore a long sleeve t-shirt over my running outfit and discarded it just before the corrals. The discarded clothing are picked up and donated.
Corrals
The Berlin corrals are the most fun out of any race I’ve run so far! There is great energy, loud music, and the announcers lead the crowd in small ‘dances’ (everyone raise your hands to the right, right right, then left left left!) It makes you feel really excited to be running this amazing race with people from around the world. After the first corral goes, it moves through the other corrals pretty efficiently, or as efficiently as can be moving 45,000 + runners through the start line.
Course callouts
Once you get started, the roads are wide enough that you should be able to run comfortably without bumping into others. There are 2 callouts – mile 1 is very crowded as we all try to leave the park, and there is a part where you ‘split’ between right and left sides, and you have to make a quick decision which way you are going. I might have veered left too quickly, which aggravated my left IT band (which I had been trying to rehab all summer) and I had to run with dull knee pain from mile 2 onwards. Another callout is an area before mile 8 (I don't recall the exact mile), where there are a lot of trolley lines. The tramway tracks cause grooves in the pavement, and I had to keep looking down so as not to trip on one of the tracks.
Water & Nutrition
During the course, there are water stations and Maurten stations offering Drink Mix 160 throughout, and Maurten Gels around mile 17. I am a Maurten fan, so I was happy to have this on the course and be able to refill my handheld bottle with Drink Mix 160. Unique to Berlin, they also have stations serving hot sweet tea. While I did not partake, some runners enjoyed it while others found it odd to drink hot liquids during a race. I will note that sometimes the ground was very sticky just after these hot tea stations.
Spectators
The spectator crowds at Berlin are wonderfully international. Many of the runners wore their country colors, and they had their own fans cheering for Italia, Brazil, Mexico, etc. For the most part, the crowds felt more reserved than NYC or Chicago crowds, although this may also be because I do not speak the language. What is fantastic is that spectators are allowed all the way up to Brandenburg Gate - it is so nice to be able to get that energy from them during the last push in the race! (In the US, crowds are not allowed near the finish line, due to the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.) During the last mile, I wanted to distract myself from the pain, so I took out my phone and filmed the cheering crowds as I was running towards Brandenburg Gate.
Finish line
A very important thing to note – the finish line is not actually the Brandenburg Gate, but about 200 meters BEYOND. This can mess with your head a bit, especially if you are mentally prepared to finish at the Gate. After the finish line, it is a short walk to the area where you remove the time chip from your shoes and give it back to collectors with buckets. (If you’ve ever tried bending down to remove something tightly and intricately tied to your shoelaces after running more than 26 miles, you will know it is a uniquely funny experience!) There are areas to collect a poncho, and a bag of refreshments that included an apple, banana, pretzels, and a chocolate roll.
My Race Strategy
I had a unique strategy going into Berlin Marathon because I was coming back from injury and surgery. I had been battling and IT band issue all summer and had an appendectomy in late July, which resulted in missing weeks of training. I had no idea if I could finish the race, so I found it easier to divide the marathon into 3 parts – 1) The first 10 miles would be slow and steady, sticking with the 5:00 pacer; 2) the second miles would be my ‘fun run’ – where I would run at whatever pace felt comfortable for me; and 3) the last 6.2 miles I allowed myself to run/walk during moments my left knee was really bothering me or if I thought it would give out. Despite the consistent knee pain from mile 2 (I called it ‘background noise’ at this point), this strategy worked for me. My goal had been to run a sub-5 hour marathon, and I ended up running a 4:50, taking 50 minutes off my first marathon time. I was just so happy I was able to run and finish the Berlin Marathon, despite having missed 6 weeks of training.
Other Recommendations
If you have the time either before or after the marathon, I highly recommend taking a walking city tour. I booked one on Tripadvisor, and it was so informative about the rich history of East and West Berlin, while taking us on a tour of the key destinations. Overall, the walking tour covers about 2-3 miles walking distance and lasted 3 hours, so you may want to save it for after the marathon if you don’t want to tire out your legs. We took the tour on Friday in place of any shakeout runs, so we were fine. Berlin is also known for their museums, and must-visits are the Holocaust Memorial, Jewish Museum, Memorial of the Berlin Wall, and Neues Museum. There are many other museums on Museum Island to explore as well. Most importantly, explore and enjoy this historical city. It is a great way to shakeout your sore legs after the race!
Comentários