Prologue
I’ve been to Berlin quite a few times over the years, to the point now where I’m practically on first name terms with most of the city’s sights! So last year when I did the Berlin marathon I decided to do a bit of sightseeing further afield and via a short train journey, discovered the small picturesque city of Potsdam. So pleasant was my visit there that I decided to see if there were a marathon held there, and sure enough there is! The marathon gets its name from the fact that the city has an abundance of castles and palaces (Schlösser in German) scattered throughout the area with many of them UNESCO sites. Some of them actually look like castles, complete with turrets, whilst others are really grand stately homes with matching grand stately gardens, including the daddy of them all; Sanssouci (French for ‘Carefree’), which along with its gardens and the ‘New Palace’ (Neues Palais) dominate the northwest end of Potsdam. Registration
I arrived early Saturday morning at Berlin’s Tegel airport and then took a medley of public transport to registration in Potsdam involving first a bus, then metro (U-Bahn) to downtown Berlin, train (S-Bahn) to Potsdam and finally a tram within Potsdam. It may sound complicated but was fairly straightforward and went smoothly apart from the train breaking with traditional German efficiency by breaking down before it could leave Berlin! Forcing all its passengers to switch to another hastily arranged train! Registration was in west Potsdam’s main athletics hall next to the athletics stadium that would serve as the start and finish line for the race. The same athletics hall would serve as bag storage on race day as well as housing a small Expo open over the weekend. As well as a marathon there was also a half marathon. Race Day
I was staying at a hotel near Potsdam’s main train station; with the intention of catching either a train or tram to the start, but the organisers had thoughtfully provided a free bus shuttle to ferry participants from the train station directly to the start area. Both the full and half marathon races were starting together at 9am. As I lined up for the start, I was sweating; not from fear or apprehension, but because it was just simply hot, sunny and actually quite humid. The start gun went off precisely on time and the hoards of runner ran around part of the athletics track before leaving the stadium and heading off to downtown Potsdam. The course was a single lap for the half marathon
runners and a 2 lap affair for the marathoners with quite a selection of
terrain to work with. The first 5km was mainly on asphalt roads, with the
occasional cobblestones and brick roads, particularly in the historic city
centre. But the route also took you through some of the city’s larger
parks and gardens that involved gravelly and dusty tracks. In fact I reckon
asphalt covered little more than half of the route. However, the course was
generally flat with only the odd small undulation, and it did feel that
there were generally more downs than ups. Since the finish was in the same
place as the start, I’m not sure though how this could be physically
possible! Any scientists out there who might be able to offer an
explanation? The section from 5km to 10km was on dusty tracks within one of the larger parks east of the city; Park Babelsberg. I’m not a bit fan of off-road running as with my running style I find this much harder and slower to move on, and so along with little shade to stay cool in, my reasonably good start soon evaporated and so consequently I pass the 10km marker in just over 49 minutes. However the marshals were supportive and I particularly remember some delightful young lady marshals cheering us on in only their skimpy bikinis; as if the marathon wasn’t scenic enough already! And of course, I would have the benefit of seeing them again on the second lap! On leaving the park it was back on roads to cross a bridge before entering another park, which at least did offer some shade thanks to an abundance of tree cover, before returning back to roads through the city to the Sanssouci gardens. Here we would lose the shade of tree cover, but would pass the spectacular New Palace, before leaving the gardens to head back along roads towards the athletics stadium. It here that I have to mention my only two gripes of the marathon; the first is that on just leaving the Sanssouci gardens there was a drink station, but the route by it was narrow, and with people stopping to pick up drinks meant those of us determine to drink-on-the-go, could only really do this by barging our way through. So hardly carefree, as the name of the gardens would suggest! My second gripe was at the end of the first lap. As we entered the stadium, the half marathon runners ran to the finish where as the full marathon runners were directly along a chute parallel to the finish, to begin the second lap. As I started my second lap I could clearly see all the half marathon runners finishing, collecting their medals and perhaps more importantly in the hot weather getting refreshments and assistance, whilst naturally I had to soldier on for another 21km! And soldier on I did, though under the heat, my pace had fallen dramatically. At the halfway point I had clocked 1:50 and had resigned to the fact that the second lap would be no quicker, if not slower and so a sub 4 hour marathon was looking like a real challenge. Crowd support was thin in places, but was very notably supportive all the same; especially on the second lap where you felt people really did appreciate what you were going through in the midday heat. And of course I saw the delightful marshals again! There were also a few places in the city areas were onlookers had brought out their hoses from their gardens and were spraying runners with water as they went by. In the closing stages of the second lap it was clear that every runner was struggling; no-one was passing me, but again I wasn’t making many inroads on the people in front except for those that had decided to walk. It was certainly a relief to get to the finish line and then shade and refreshment. The latter included beer, though alas it was alcohol-free, as well as cola, water, tea, apples and bananas. After collecting my gear and an instant printed copy of my finisher’s certificate, I have a classic German bratwurst, before taking the tram back to my hotel for a shower, and a nap in my air-conditioned room! Stats and
Postscript
Apart from my two gripes, the marathon was well organised and there were sufficient refreshment stations on the course serving water, cola and bananas. It was a shame it was so hot, otherwise I can image the course being fairly quick. However, hot it was, and so my finish time was way down on my usual. My personal chip time was 4:01:32. This netted me 148th of the 439 finishers. I was also 39th of 87 finishers in my age group (M40-44) and the 138th male home. 2076 runners finished the half marathon. The marathon race was very much a local’s event; no Kenyans here, but a German winning in 2:44:56 and most of the finishers did seem to come from Potsdam, Berlin or the wider Brandenburg region, which may explain why the event web site was only available in German! A local newspaper covered the event the following day
and on reading an article under the rather dramatic heading of ‘Hitzeschlacht’ (Heat of Battle) I learn that in temperatures of 27
deg C, the race was overshadowed by the death of a local participant. 
Flatowturn (Flatow Tower) in Park Babelsberg 
Schloss Sanssouci (Castle Sanssouci) in Park Sanssouc 
Neues Palais (New Palace) in Park Sanssouci |