Berlin Marathon 2024

The 50^th Berlin Marathon 29^th September 2024

As if the marathon majors were not hard enough to get into already, on a nice round anniversary year it seems almost impossible. I say ‘almost’ as some of the 6 members of the club managed to wiggle their way into the event in a variety of creative ways. Eoin (with later notice than most to book flights etc.) got in on the second round of offers. Kim got straight in with the ballot first time, but I can’t shake the feeling that her local expertise and knowledge may have given her some sort of immeasurable advantage… 😉. Siobhán and Padraic very creatively entered as a ‘team’ (minimum 2 members needed). This way if 1 person on the team gets in through the ballot, then all other team members automatically get an entry too -well played guys! -I will be joining their team for the ballots for Tokyo, Boston, London and New York and any other new ‘team’ members are also welcome. Eileen played a little bit more ‘hard to get’ -she got her offer, but decided to ignore it for a few months and when she was debited the race fee she promptly cancelled her card and had the transaction refunded! Luckily once she checked her junk mail folder, she found her successful ballot email and no doubt the cause of such a large debit on her account. As it turns out, this situation happens all the time and she got everything resolved quite quickly. I didn’t get in via the ballot so managed to get a charity place with Childline by the ISPCC. I spent the last few months as, if not more worried about raising the money than I was about doing the training.

As I reflect on the Expo there seems to be a lot of mixed reviews. On one hand you had the fantastic setting; the old Templehof Airport which is a sight to behold in itself, with old war planes parked next to the modern BMW Timer Cars. I found the local team who work at the expo a pleasure to deal with, and as always when in Germany nearly everyone was impressively multi lingual. However on the other hand there were reports of huge delays getting in on the Thursday, Friday and early Saturday with participants having to queue outdoors for a long time before even gaining entry into the building. Also I believe the merchandise area was equally as busy at those times, but I missed a lot of that as I arrived an hour and a half before closing on Saturday evening. On the event page this was actually one of the recommended times to arrive, but they had run out of the marathon bags an hour earlier so all I got was my number handed to me and any pre-ordered merchandise. A kind volunteer gave me his own copy of the map of the start area/race route which my family needed. I assumed there would have been enough bags for all marathon participants -the Germans were perhaps not prepared as well as one would have thought…🤔

By the time Sunday arrived I think everyone had been to Vapianos at least once. I had to queue to get into one on Saturday evening, but it was worth it. They provide the perfect pre-marathon meal and all in the surroundings of plenty of fellow runners creates a real sense of pre-race excitement. The official start time was 9:15am and the marathon entry allowed everyone taking part to travel on public transport for free from Thursday to Sunday. I have to admit that I love this, as I feel like the atmosphere starts to build as you start to see fellow runners on the S Bahn/U Bahn/Bus/Tram en route to the start line.  It was a cold but dry morning in Berlin for the race, ideal conditions. If anyone is running Berlin in future, it may be good to know that you must pay for the bag drop separately. And if you decline to pay up front you only have a certain amount of time to book it, as they withdraw it as an option a few weeks before the race. I entered the race area using my number and a fabric wristband which they give you at the expo. Once they put it on, this wristband has to stay on your wrist until the end of the race. So, if you go to the expo on Thursday you will end up with a wristband on for 4 days potentially. -Not that it bothers me, I still have mine on now (Thursday).

When I entered the start area one thing that became apparent was the sheer volume of runners. The queues for the Portaloos were huge and I barely had space to do a warm up run. I know a few of the Sportsworld team could not get near the start at their allocated times as the queues to the start were backed up. There were just queues of waiting runners filling up the paths in the forested areas of the Tiergarten. Also a word on the Portaloos, always a less glamorous part of running, I had used one in both Hamburg and at the start line. The German versions are definitely a tad more ‘primitive’ than what we are used to in Ireland -not for the faint of heart….

Anyway, back to the running. The MCs at the start did a great job of animating everyone in the crowd (anyone that wasn’t still stuck queueing in the forest). There seemed to be very little enforcement of the corral areas, I was in corral C but was surrounded by people with D, A, C, E and B on their numbers. We got a nice introduction to some of the elite runners on the big screen and then there was a blast of ‘Sirius’ and we were off. The huge volume of runners starting the marathon were split into 2 sides of an avenue for the first few kilometres. Then when everyone comes together, it starts to feel a bit tight. I have never bumped elbows or shoulders with fellow runners as often as during this marathon. 2 separate runners also stepped on my heel from behind, both very apologetic but I couldn’t shake the feeling that we were a bit overcrowded.

The route winds clockwise around the City Centre until you finish just beyond the Brandenburg Gate. It is surreal to run around a city which has had such a rich history and it is impossible not to think of how things would have been here during World War II and the Cold War. The sun started to shine early on and was quite strong by the time I was finishing. We ducked in and out of shaded areas along the route and shade was definitely something I tried to maximise running in. There was a variety of musical acts along the route with even a Native American Pipe Band playing at one stage. Along with the standard water stations and 1 tea station (hot) there were also several informal ‘rehydrating stations’ with a variety of different homemade-looking drinks in different sized and coloured unmarked bottles. These were manned by friendly local people who seemed to just want to help the runners between water stops. I thought this was great and very typical of Berlin, although I didn’t touch any of them…but that probably says more about me and my trust issues to be fair. The whole race went by in a blur for me as I focused on trying to chase down the 3-hour pacers. The route really is very fast and very flat, but ‘not totally flat’ as Siobhán correctly pointed out later that night. The Brandenburg Gate really appears quite quickly and as soon as you pass it you still have 400 meters to go. I knew this in advance thankfully, and I am sure it would have broken a few runners who were not expecting it. Crossing the finish line was a great feeling. All of the Sportsworld team had a positive result in some way, shape or form on what was otherwise a tough day’s running in the sun within such a huge field. Kim and I both ran PBs, Eoin took 2 minutes off his time from his first Berlin Marathon 9 years ago, Padraic who has been injured most of the year opted to do the race at the 11th hour and managed to finish comfortably and earn his medal and Eileen and Siobhán displayed true teamwork as they took on the challenge together and finished almost alongside one another with very respectable times. The medal is definitely one of the nicest I have ever received.

The next day it was revealed that there were 54,280 finishers: making the 50th Berlin Marathon the largest marathon in history to date. It was a spectacular event to take part in and a very quick course which I would recommend, but there are a few organisational things that need to be looked it. Particularly a more staggered start and better enforcement of the starting waves/corrals. I am sure the organisers will listen to the feedback provided by runners, and this will serve to make the event even better next September.