Berlin Marathon 2009 – Takeda

My Berlin Marathon Experience

I’ve just got back from Berlin Marathon and totally buzzing with excitement. It was my third marathon but by far the best marathon experience ever!

Finished Berlin Marathon

Whist I was training for London marathon I got an email from my company, Takeda, to say that Takeda were sponsoring the Berlin Marathon and they asked me to join the Takeda Marathon team.  At the time I thought this would be good ideas for two reasons; firstly it would stop me getting fat and lazy after the London Marathon, and secondly it would give me a chance to do another Major Marathon.

When I got to Berlin I was so impressed to find that Takeda were one of the main sponsors of the event along with Addidas.  They had a massive booth at the exhibition offering the athletes free health checks and had a long queue of folks waiting for their sports massage.

Berlin is a fantastic city rich with history, art and architecture and it’s really easy to get around as all public transport run on time! The Berlin Marathon is a bigger event that the other marathon’s I’ve seen because they have a two day event including a mini marathon for the children and an in line skating marathon on Saturday.  In addition they organised a breakfast run for the marathon runners on Saturday morning at the Olympic stadium with a hearty German breakfast to get you really in the mood for the event.

The pre race atmosphere on Saturday was brilliant.  There were plenty of stalls selling the most delicious sausages, fries and grills, salty pretzels, sugar coated dugouts and arrays of German and Czech beer and fruit filled cocktails.  While you were munching on the yummy food you were entertained by the BMX bike and in line skater stunt men, as well as live music in the Tier garden.

There were 60,000 participants from over 200 nations in the Berlin marathon and they had over 1 million spectators.  We met up with the Takeda team on Saturday night for the team dinner and it was impressive to see that colleagues from Japan and US had travelled all the way to Berlin for the marathon.

Takeda Team

On Sunday, the race day, we met up at 7:30 for a team photo shoot in front of the Berlin parliament building.  It is an impressive building and looks into the park and the changing area.  We posed and posed for the Camera for ages. If that was not enough, I had a chance to have a solo shoot with Takeda official photographer!  Eventually managed to peel myself away from the lens and go to the start area!  There were so many participants that it took me 10 minutes to walk to my bag drop area, and took me 20 minutes to pass the start line after the official gunshot!

The Takeda team had given us Takeda sponsored T-shirts and they had asked us to wear them for the photo shoot, but they said that we did not had to wear them for the race.  Once I got there and realised the level of Takeda involvement in the race, I wanted to wear my Takeda T-shirt, it made me feel proud not only because they had made such a huge financial investment, but because they took the trouble to get involved and do something so positive for health and fitness.

Hand bike race

Running along the marathon route at every kilometre sign there was a Takeda logo and from mile 18 onwards they had blocks of green beds at massage stations to help runners get rid of their cramps and aches and get back on their feet again.

The race day was a really hot day, they had forecasted temperature of 25 C but in reality I think it was 27-28 degrees.  I decided that I was going to be sensible and take it easy; I aimed for a steady marathon, rather than killing myself at the first half and struggle in the second half.  I felt much stronger than the previous marathons and even at kilometre 30 I felt I was able to accelerate and overtake folks.  Although it was a hot day, the tall buildings and the tree lined boulevards created plenty of shade and protection from the sun.  The atmosphere and support was great and just enough; not as much as London where you felt that the crowd was on top you and not as sparse as Amsterdam that you felt for half of the race you were running on your own!  Also there were plenty water and fuel stations, as well as non alcoholic beer along the way and plenty of live music and performers to cheer you on.

I finished the race at a time of 4:47:33 which was 2 minutes faster than London and 13 minutes slower than Amsterdam.  I am glad that I took a steady pace because I really enjoyed every mile of that marathon and I would love to go back and do it all over again.  The long distance running has a different feel about it, it’s more to do with finding that comfortable spot where you can go on and on and on! And I think it is changing me as a person to become stronger both physically and mentally.

I am grateful for those of you who supported me with the training for this marathon, and for Takeda for sponsoring my registration, flight and accommodation.  I am also grateful for your donations to my cause, Pipar project.  We raised £600 pounds which is a lot of money in Nepal and will go a long way to support education for children in rural communities.  There are some more photos on my fund raising page http://www.justgiving.com/mehrnazcampbell/

Come and run the Berlin marathon with me next year! It is fab, fast and fan-dabi-dozey!

Mehrnaz