Berlin Half Marathon 2013 / Berliner Halb Marathon 2013 [photos and report]

The Berlin Half Marathon 2013 was a really special race for me this year and I really enjoyed the whole race weekend.

When I was (much) younger I was lucky enough to go on a school trip to Berlin - and this was before the wall came down so at that time it was a city divided into East and West.  We did the normal sort of sight seeing during the day, but one morning a small group of us were taken running by one of our teachers.  We ran around various areas of West Berlin - including the Tiergaten, past the Soviet War memorial and so on.  We also had an interesting experience warming up at the top of a viewing platform, actions that saw us attract the attention of the control towers in the no-mans land between the two sections of wall!

The chance to go back and run in Berlin again was therefore appealing - 25 years after first running in the city I returned to run the Berlin Half Marathon 2013.  A race that took in some of the things I had seen in my youth plus many more of the historic Berlin landmarks:

Berlin Half Marathon 2013 course map

On day one in Berlin we visited the Berlin Half Marathon EXPO at the old Berlin Tempelhof airport (base for the historic Allied airlifts in 1948 / 1949), picked up race number and visited some of the running apparel stalls.  We also managed to find time for a beautiful curry wurst too :-)

Race day was then the Sunday, a cold crisp morning with perfect blue skies:

Berlin Half Marathon 2013 - start

The inline skating half marathon set off first before more than 30000 runners set off in staggered waves.  Others with me on this trip were not running and stayed in the hotel, the Berlin Radisson Blu, where they had a great view of the Berlin Half Marathon from the hotel balcony:

Berlin Half Marathon 2013 - as seen from the Radisson Blu hotel

The balcony of the Radisson Blu hotel proved to be a great place to film video too as runners went past:


The Berlin Half Marathon route wound its way into West Berlin (passing through the Brandenburg Gate) and took in a whole range of sights (see the above map) before returning into East Berlin and finishing close to AlexanderPlatz and the TV tower.

There were various refreshment points en-route (water and apple juice) and great support all around Berlin.  I missed my PB by about 30 seconds in the end (frustrating!) but loved the race.  As people crossed the line they were rewarded with water, a banana and an alcohol-free pint of Erdinger - indeed it will take a long time to forget the image of people standing around with medals round their necks and pints in their hands!

The medal was OK (but not great) - on one side it states Berliner Halbmarathon and on the other side it has an image of Nikolaikirche:

Berlin Half Marathon 2013 medal - front

Berlin Half Marathon 2013 medal - back

There was also a tent printing out certificates for finishers showing people their times and a magazine has been sent to me both pre- and post- race.  The baggage storage was also extremely efficient (numbered and on the back of different lorries in the start area) and the whole event was very well organised.

The Berlin Half Marathon is a big race and I really enjoyed it.  It would have been great to get a free t shirt, as in previous years, but everything else was perfect and the Berlin Half Marathon 2013 is one of the best half marathons I've done.

Vielen dank!