The 50th BMW Berlin marathon was held on Sunday, the 29th of September 2024. To mark its big 50, the organisers wanted over 58,000 runners, allowing for some runners to DNF (Did Not Finish). The idea was to end up with at least fifty thousand finishers. In the end there were over fifty four thousand finishers, making it the biggest in history. It felt special to run my second destination race in its anniversary year.
I arrived on Friday, the 27th with the hope of getting to the expo to pick up my bib. With flight delays and an imperfect journey, that was not to be. Ended up going on Saturday morning with a fellow runner, who was staying at the same hotel. The 40-minute walk to the expo at the old Brandenburg airport was pleasant on a nice sunny morning from the Mercure Berlin Hotel.
One of the best things about the Berlin marathon is the 4-day free travel pass runners are given. It makes travel much easier and stress free, encouraging exploration of the beautiful city. Travelling through Berlin was quite easy, not much chance of getting lost, although asking to be pointed in the right direction was necessary once or twice.
The expo, which opened on Thursday seemed a mixed bag. Many on social media reported long queues on Thursday and Friday, accompanied with chaos, system breakdowns and merch madness! The organisers’ advice had been to avoid visiting the expo on Saturday, which was expected to be the busiest day. It seemed most people took that advice because Saturday turned out to be less busy and I was in and out within an hour, including merch browsing😊.
The race itself was simply epic! Berlin is known as the flattest of the Marathon Majors and there were several reports of personal bests from many runners, including me🥳. The day was race-perfect: mild, good cloud cover and dry. We couldn’t have asked for better weather🌤The road surface was smooth, no cobble stones, and the medal was absolutely stunning! Befitting of an anniversary event🏅
This was my second destination race (after Paris last year), second Marathon Major (after London 4 times) and sixteenth marathon. Which one is my favourite? I’d say easily Berlin😊!
If you know, you know 😉