As the fastest of the World Marathon Majors, with excellent organisation and and engaging route the Berlin Marathon is an extremely attractive marathon for runners of all levels.
It all started in 1974 when group of runners from one of Germany’s most prestigious athletics clubs, SC Charlottenburg, organised the first BERLIN-MARATHON. In 1981 the race transformed from the world’s most boring marathon in to one of its best when the routs moved from the Grunewald (a big forest) into the city center of West Berlin.
Supported by the three NATO allied forces (Britain, France and the United States of America) it naturally developed into Germany’s biggest and best quality marathon.
The collapse of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 gave a fabulous opportunity to unify the Berlin Marathon and on September 30, 1990, three days before German reunification, the course of the Berlin Marathon led through Brandenburg Gate and reunited sides of Berlin.
Berlin Marathon Route
Since then the Berlin Marathon has become a marathon of firsts:
In 2001 Naoko Takahashi became the first woman to break the 2:20 barrier in Berlin.
In 2007 the Ethiopian world class runner Haile Gebrselassie broke the world record on the streets of Berlin: He improved the next year with the world’s best time of 2:04:26 and just one year later he returned to the Berlin Marathon and became the first man to run a sub 2:04 marathon with a time of 2:03:59.
The Berlin Marathon is the place to run Personal Bests. Not only a fast course but only a skip from the UK so there is no jet lag or long haul swelling to slow you.
In 2010 the BMW Berlin Marathon fielded over 40,000 from 122 countries. The Men’s winner, Patrick Makau, didn’t quite set a new World Marathon record, but his time of 2.05.08 was absolutely remarkable when you consider that it rained for the first time in 22 years.