Berlin Half Marathon

St.Hedwig’s Catholic Kirche in Berlin Mitte is located behind the Opera house and across from Humbolt University. It is also just a few minutes walk from ESMT. The Church is the seat of the Berlin Archbishop. I would have expected such a church to be multilingual. However, they have Eucharistic celebration only in Deutsch. My wife and I are particular to attend a Sunday service where ever we are. So, we continue to attend this church though we do not understand the sermons by the priest. But the beauty of the Catholic church is that the rituals are the same in any part of the world and that makes it easy for us to follow the priest as he says his prayers and we say our response in English as we are used to.


So, last Sunday, we attended the 10 am service and when we stepped out, I remembered that it was also the date for the Berlin Half Marathon. We walked over to the start point of the half marathon at the Berliner Dome, just across the street from ESMT. The race had already started much before the time we reached there and the city staff was clearing out the road blocks, etc. So, we spent some time looking at the Flea Market along the spree – checking out some paintings and some nice small leather pouches shaped like sea shells, etc. The day was a cruel one for running – it was bitterly cold and felt like below Zero. As we walked to the end point – the Rathaus, on the opposite side of the Dome, We could see people lining the street and the excitement building. We could hear clapping and general noise levels rising as the winner of the woman’s marathon - Peninah Arusei crossed the finish line. The Kenyan clocked 68:22, which is the third fastest times this year so far.

Stefano and Martin from ESMT were also running the half Marathon. So, we decided to see if we could find them among the runners reaching the end point. We found a place just opposite the cheering band and the cheer girls doing the routine. The trickle of runners reaching the finish line began to increase in momentum – one followed by another, then soon groups of 5 runners running together, then, 6, then 7, then 10, steadily increasing till all we could see were a torrent of bobbing heads into the distance. A record number of 20,660 runners from 86 nations had entered Germany’s biggest and best quality half marathon. 17,733 runners finished the race.

Looking out for Stefano and Martin in this flow of runners became very difficult. There were a few false alarms. People looking like Stefano came in all shapes and sizes. I must have waved at many of them. They would have thought I was just cheering them on. I was only one of the 150,000 spectators who had lined to see the marathon.

Martin is the class manager of our batch. He is quiet, unassuming and sponsored by the MAN group. He is also the German junior canoeing champion. With this kind of sports background, he had gone onto the marathon without much practice. His past experience with running a marathon was the Berlin Half Marathon about 4 years back. Stefano was better prepared – running atleast twice during the week preparing for this half marathon … He, of course, has other reasons to keep himself fit - to run away from girls (or someone in particular?) who were chasing him J. He is this popular Italian whom the girls cannot seem to have enough of. He had done a marathon about 2 years back.


With passing time, I began to lose hope of being able to identify my friends among the runners. If there is one lesson I learnt from this marathon, it is that, never run alongside a beautiful woman runner. If you do, no one ever notices you. Maybe I did miss them!!! I was also looking out for Santiago, he was to join Martin and Stefano from Potsdamer Platz to run the last 4 Kms to motivate them through the last leg. As the stream of runners continued to flow, I could see women runners and then children. I was sure that they were definitely faster than letting kids overtake them. I later got to know that it took them over 3 minutes to move from their position to the start line after the start of the half marathon – so packed was the race. Soon the crowd of runners became very tired looking men. I must have definitely missed them.


While I was discussing with my wife whether to stop this futile search and return home, like a slow motion scene from a Hollywood movie played to the background of the Final Countdown, In the midst of the white sea of people, I see this black stallion – running proudly with the head held up high. The contrast was stark – drooping tired white shoulders all around and this steady head with a sparkling smile and black mane – the head of the Argentinean, Santiago. Following him closely were Martin and Stefano. Santiago was leading the heroes home. The cheering band drowned out our calling out of names. So, we made our way back to the finish line to meet our proud runners. There we saw Elka and Ritesh who had also come to cheer them. We hung around for a while as Martin and Stefano posed for a few pictures along with their chief motivator – the black stallion, before stopping at the stands for their quota of energy drink – a nice cold beer!!!


As they relaxed after a morning well spent, my wife and I returned home as I had to get back to school for a group meeting for Marketing. My group was writing a paper on the marketing strategy of facebook.


I am proud of Stefano and Martin who ran the Half Marathon and not to forget Santiago for his boundless enthusiasm. Hopefully they will also run the Full Marathon in September.

Pictures: Stefano gesturing to Santiago and Martin to join for the picture .... The runners - Stefano and Martin .... the runners joined by the Stallion :)