We now consider ourselves to be experts when it comes to supporting our children in their various athletic exploits, and some 8 marathons, 2 half marathons, 2 half iron mans, at least one triathlon and the Rat Race, (I think that’s all!), we have yet to encounter a wet day! But we had been watching the forecast and were not surprised to see grey, overcast skies.
We had a plan! Mapped out using the route, it’s access to public transport and also where David felt he might need a bit of encouraging, in the “death zone” as he calls it. Those last few kilometres!
The race was passing within a couple of hundred yards of the hotel at around 10k, so that was our first point. With the app that enabled us to track him and his hoped for speed of 4.30min per kilometre we had a good idea of when he should be coming past. We had lots of time to wait, so went to a very nice coffee shop. Had we not had breakfast at our hotel we would have had breakfast here. The food looked really good! Whilst there all the elite runners went by, along with all the various wheelchair athlete, and shortly after the masses started to appear. It is actually quite difficult to spot an individual runner in a large crowd that is running past you at speed, even when you know what colour clothes they are wearing! It was actually David who spotted us on the side of the road! He was looking in good shape and bang on time.
From here we hopped onto the underground and headed for the far southwest of the city - Breitenbachplatz - at about 27k. David’s friends Ed and Simon were due to see him at 13 and then again at 33. By the time we got here it was a bit damp, very light spits and spots of rain, and probably quite nice for the runners! David came through on time again, easier to see this time as the runners had thinned out and there were less people on the street.
Then it was back onto the tube and up to Nollerndorfplatz at about 37k. Unfortunately by the time we got there it had started to rain properly. We did feel sorry for the runners, as well as all the people like us out on the streets supporting them all!
I have to be honest and say that David did not look quite so comfortable at this point. In fact he hardly saw us, so “in the zone” he was, the “death zone”! Some of the runners were really struggling at this point, so near to the end.
We then walked as fast as we could to get as near as possible to the end of the race at the Brandenburg Gate. By this time it was raining hard and as David crossed the finishing line he was looking rather bedraggled! However a time of 3hours 12 was around what he expected, and given the weather conditions at the end, very acceptable.
We met him just near our hotel at Alexanderplatz, where he was warming up with a coffee. We had seen a lot of runners after the race with space blankets and waterproof ponchos shivering, and David too had struggled with getting warm as he got cold so quickly once he had stopped running.
A hot shower and another hot drink at our hotel did the trick and then out to a steak house for a late dinner with Ed and Simon!
The rest of the day, or what was left of it was very lazy and eventually David headed for his airport hotel as he had a very early flight the next morning so that he could be in the office nice and early!
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