Die Wahre Geschichte vom Berlin

Ch 2 : Halbmarathonlauf Tag (Race day)

The breakfast bars at the hotel were vast with a massive choice of cereals, juices, fruits, breads, hot and cold food, you name it, but no porridge, just as well I'd brought my own. I collared a young frau, who immediately recognised my offering. In typical style she wanted to know precisely how long the milk needed to boil for and what other ingrediants I needed adding, other than milk. I guessed at 'zwei minuten', having never measured seconds but always judged consistency, and my german wouldn't have been up to consistency descriptions. Wondered if the german girls were always so precise with other things they did?

The race start was 11:30, we'd arranged to meet at 09:00 to formulate a plan, the culture was catching. The plan at 09:00 was to meet at 10:00 the pre race nerves were kicking in.

  The hotel was 10 mins walk from the start, nice planning 'T'. We set off past the Rathaus then veered right towards Unter Den Linden, over the river, to the front of the 'Zwiefel' building where many of the 18,000 were already congregating. We matched our number to one of the many large trailers who would hold our bags. We had our last drinks, vaselined in the traditional Dimelow order, no need to change that on an away day, then followed the procession. The in-line skaters were already warming up, slip streaming each other in the road. As we approached the start the crowds became denser, we began to lose each other, as groups headed off for the last loo call. The atmosphere was electric, we stood in our pens waiting for the off. The in-line skaters started first, then each Pen was started at two minute intervals, the chip would record your time. I'd ended up next to Ray, we heard at least three shots amidst the loud music, we approached the start together, we wished each other good luck, then the starter with his Luger shot into the air and we were off, over the start mats and heading for the Brandenberg gate.

The crowds were fantastic the whole way, they had cow bells and hooters, all manner of instruments, bands,sambas and drums, and they were all very vocal and always encouraging. I remember seeing 'T', Emma and Liz near the gate, they were roaring us on.  The temptation was to fly, but it was hot, 21 degrees, no shade, and we'd had no time to acclimatise. We traveled west on a similar route to yesterday's bus ride. At 5km we headed North West into the area called Charlottenburg, it was here I passed Sue, she'd been on a flier, using the famous elbows to good effect and mixing it with the Kenyans, no time for pleasantries onwards and flatward.  At 8km I was again near Kaiserdamm, on Bismarck Strasse at the most westerly point on the course, it was going well and the crowds were pulling us on. After a few tight bends we were running up the 'Ku-Damm', heading towards the church with the steepletop missing, the crowds were 6 or 7 deep. At 15km the heat was starting to take it's toll, I heard Katherine shout my name from nowhere, I thought she was about to overtake, but I'd overtaken her without noticing. Then ahead I caught sight of Jenga G, AKA 'Pike' and Geoffrey. He'd got his 'dig in', shoulders slightly stooped look. I was tiring, but the sight of 'G' spurred me on. As I got closer to Geoff, Nick passed me, he was running strong. I passed Geoff between 16 & 17km but was now already having to work for it. I'd lost sight of the Km markers, I later found they had changed colours at different stages of the race. The time was 1:20, the hoped for PB was gone, it was now damage limitation. The end seemed forever. I crossed the line relieved at the end it was over, I'd suffered again in the heat. My thigh started cramping. At the end we were processed, we passed tables of water, the medals were distributed, then hot sticky tea, then chopped bananas, before passing the massage tables, the next tents took our chip, then the next tent gave you a certificate with your finish time and your finishing position, along with your class position, all within 5 mins of finishing. The Germans as well as being efficient are far less reserved than us British, bare bums were every-where as runners just stripped naked and got changed on the grass verge.

A small group of PFR runners congregated on the grass. Bob had run well and finished 1st PFR in 1:25, he'd finished 309th male out of over 9,000 male finishers,  and was 4th in his age class which had 450 finishers. Ray finished 10th in his class of 173 in a time of 1:42. Mark was disappointed and had gone over 1:40. 'G' had missed his elusive 1:40, Sue had narrowly missed a PB, and had finished 3rd in her class of over 130, most of them German club runners. Kath had pipped G by 10 secsonds and finished inside the top 100 women, from over 3,200 women finishers. John Rowe ran 1:34:41, disappointed, but the sub 1:30 will come. Jane C had run a negative split and felt strong at the end, finishing 29th in her class of 431. Stewart had run 1:31 was 32nd M50 and had to be pleased after 9mths of niggles. Dave like myself had ran 1:38 but had pipped me by 19 secs. Nick had run 1:34 to finish 3rd PFR runner. Tim had just missed a PB and ran 1:46. Barbara was overcome at the finish but ran 1:51 finishing 11th in her class. Anne was the only one of us to run a PB in 1:51 and finished 20th in her class of 266, watch out London. Jane F was disappointed with 2:12 but the main objective of London now lay on the horizon, let the taper begin. Gill Wolf ran 1:57:04 and was 4th in her class. The first 10 male runners were all Kenyans, lead home by Paul  Kimugal in the 2nd fastest time in the world this year in 1:01:04. What a race, one I'm sure we'll all remeber as long as we live.    Click here for the FULL PFR RESULTS LIST.

We'd arranged to meet at the steps of the Berliner Dom (Cathedral) after the race but found our path cut off by the finishing straight. Somehow most of us managed to meet in the road just opposite the Cathedral. It was two and half hours after the start and runners were still flooding in. By the time we'd showered, the planned meeting at 15:00 in the hotel jazz club had passed. A number of us congregted on the bar terrace outside the hotel, soaking up the sun and replenishing the fluids. The punks were crashed on the Alex'z fountain, it was time to relax and watch the world go by.

The terrace views suddenly got warmer as one the punks decided to strip naked, and drape herself on the fountain wall. G decided it needed closer inspection and left his cloudy beer to take note of her hair colour and body piercings, 'you never know what descriptions the police may need when they arrive'. After 15mins a lady officer arrived to give advice on skin cancer. She duely covered up then moved and stripped again. G ordered more beer, after 30 mins the black (orange in the old GDR) mariah arrived and took her away. Thankfully it wasn't 16 years earlier.

Later in the afternoon a few of us decided to take a trip up the TV Tower (Berliner Fernsehturm) which was just 100yds from our hotel.  The tower was opened in October 1969 after taking 4 years to complete, it still remains the 3rd highest building in Europe at  368 metres. The lift takes you to the observatory in the sphere at over 200m in 40 secs. In case of emergency there are 968 steps to the top. In high winds the observatory only moves 1.5 cm, but the top can move over 30 cm. The commentary phone in English gave a good history lesson about Berlin from one of 20 different windows in the tower.

The Photo here shows our hotel 'Park Inn'from the obervation gantry on the TV Tower.

Most of our group drifted back to the hotel, I stayed on in the tower, went up a flight of stairs to the revolving restaurant, where I chilled with a latte and cake and chatted to an American father and son. They were visiting Berlin before going to travel on the Trans Siberian railway. I stayed for about an hour by which time the restaurant had revolved twice and the chilling was complete. I visted the restaurant loo and couldn't help thinking how the sewage system worked from the top of the tower, no doubt gravity came into the equation.......

At 19:00 the troops had regrouped, we had a beer or three then headed out down Unter den Linden, retracing our earlier run. We turned left at Friedrich strasse and passed a car showroom that held the most expensive car in the world, but was it:                        

     the Bentley or Bugatti?

We eventually came to rest at the restaurant Borchardt, another Italian located on Franzoesische Strasse in the Berlin-Mitte district. The tables were almost empty, but it was quite everywhere. The wine flowed and the food again was very good, and it didn't take long for the Borchardt to be humming. 

I guess it was gone 11:00 when we asked for the bill. Some of our group were going to head home after another busy day. I was determined to get to Potsdamer, even if it meant flying alone, the night was still young, and Dave wanted to dance with somebody................

Ten of us legged it down Friedrich Strasse, then right down Leipziger, we crossed the double cobbles and arrived in Potsdamer where the footpaths were embeded with blue lights and the roof in the Sony Centre was changing colour to give the place a magical feel. We sat 'outside' under the Patio burners in shirt sleeves and chatted the night away drinking wine of any colour and recounting the day. Dave still wanted to dance with somebody.......

At around 01:00 we headed for home the disco's were shut and unknown to us the U-bahn had stopped running. We split taxis until G and I were left. We went underground and were told by a column of concrete that the trains had stopped. The column told us to go back up the stairs, turn right, walk 20 metres to the bus stop and wait 6 mins for the N5 bus to take us back to Alex'z, even the concrete could speak fluent english. Can't imagine that on West street a block of concrete, telling a german how to get home to happy valley at 01:00 in the morning. 

We finished the night in the hotel bar, where some of the other group were still going strong, the bar shut at 02:00 at which time the lift was waiting to take you to any one of the 37 floors. Gute nacht und nachspeise phantasiert.

Ch 3 : Montag morgan (Monday morning)

There were a few sore heads at breakfast on Monday. I'd awoke at 06:00 got up and ran down the river to suss out the boat trips, the legs were very sore, and I felt like spotty dog from the Wooden Tops shuffling over the Platz. I saw John Rowe and his family setting off at 07:30 for their earlier flight back to Manchester. Those that were up and could bear the thought of getting on das boat made the planned boat trip at 10:15. We set of from the rear of the Berliner Dom and headed South east a short distance past Nikolaivietal before turning at the start of the canal. We retraced our route then headed out pass Museum Island and the Reichstag. We cruised along the Tiergarten and past the new central station being built in time for next years World Cup. Our guide had warned us the commentary would be German, but he played to is audience and threw in quite alot of English for which he was very fluent.  It was a nice relaxing way to spend an hour and see a few more sights before we had to pack and be on the 12:08 S-bahn back to the airport.

 The weekend was a grand and one I'm sure we will all remember forever. As for Berlin, it was big, only after going up the tower did you appreciate how big. It probably needed a week to explore it better, but we didn't do too bad in under 3 days. The Germans lived up to their name in efficiency, the race organisation and transport system was impressive. The food was very good, and the company as always terrific. 

Thanks to 'T' for organising the weekend. The hotel was spot on and very good value. I'm sure all the hassle was worth it in the end. 

Danke weider Teresa aus wir alle (Thanks again Teresa from all of us, in my best pigeon German). any volunteers for next year ?? don't tell 'em y' name Pike.