Berlin Marathon

September 24-27, 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 that 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 excuses but I just couldn't find a perfect route for myself. It probably was all mental and lack of 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 seen an email on my phone saying that a police investigation cancelled my connector 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 looks like shit, but its a really cool city. People here are okay, sure I felt that I would be robbed at times, but believe me Paris is much worst. I digress, the people in Berlin spoke really good English and were friendly for the most part. Click on the links below to read my stories in Berlin.