My first city Marathon in Berlin in 1999 had been a tremendous experience, so a return visit was on my wish list. After my visit to Stockholm in June with Karin, we decided to go on another weekend with a tent, sleeping bags and marathon for me. This was to be in Berlin on 28th September, when the 30th addition of the marathon was to be run.
I was aware of the fact that it was difficult to get start numbers for several of the major marathons because everything would be sold out. Naively enough, I didn’t think this would be the case in Berlin, so I got a disappointment when I wanted to book. Sold out. There was nothing to be done.
Purely by chance, on the Internet I found a runner, who wanted to sell his number because he had sustained an injury. Transferring a start number was not strictly legal but that’s what happened. Oddly enough his name was also Henrik, and he was born the same year as me. On arrival in Berlin, I succeeded in reregistering the surname, so everything was as it should be.
After work on Friday 26th September, we took the ferry from Gedser to Rostock in Germany and drove the 200 or so kilometres towards Berlin. We had reserved a pitch for our tent at DC–Campingplatz Berlin Am Krossinsee. But when we got there, it was dark and we were lazy. We arranged to spend the first night in a room, so that we could wait until the following day to put up our tent. However, the laziness persisted, and we stayed in the room. It was very comfortable. The building had four rooms withshared shower and lavatory, as well as a kitchen, although we never used it.
On Saturday, we picked up my start number and explored the city together. Everything was new to Karin, and although I had been there before there was plenty for me to enjoy, too.
The run began on Sunday at nine. It was quite impossible to drive to the start, so we parked the car in a central place and got there by public transport.
The weather was good, and the route was the same as four years previously. It had been a tremendous experience the first time, and the second was as just good. Again, happy people were partying everywhere. A large group of Danes ran around carrying Brandenburger Tor throughout the race. They had made a model of the historic city gates and mounted it on a wood panel the size of a door. The whole thing was on wheels, and the runners took turns pushing the structure.
My time was not as fast as in my first race, but then that was not unexpected. I ended at 4:34:33, having run fairly constantly throughout the day. Not surprisingly, three Kenyans came in first, and Paul Tergat won with a record time of 2:04:55.
After Karin and I had found each other again, it was time to set off back to Denmark to work the following day.
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