Further adventures of “Gadget” this time at the Asics Grand 10 in Berlin

As part of my quest for that magic one hour 10km time, I decided back in April to enter a race in Berlin. Main reason being, I speak German and want to keep up the practice and I knew the course, would be fast, flat and quite interresting sights along the way

Collected my number, timing chip and finishers T-shirt on Friday at a Mercedes Benz garage. Errm feel slighly out of place here with my Lichfield 10km 2009 finishers t-shirt and trackie bottoms, 4 massive floors of luxury cars,cheapest being about 41,000 Euro but on average 65,000 Euro.

Race day – breakfast in hotel, big breadroll full of yumee cheese,cereal, banana and lots of coffee and off on the underground to Schloss Charlottenberg, the race start. Got there with about an hour to spare after completely messing up which station to change at and getting off 3 stops earlier than necessary. Hmm have I brought the right kit to run in ? Reason being only 9 degrees centigrade, dull, damp and drizzly. Well if Im gonna go for it then I might as well be cool.

Off we go, lovely straight wide road but even so, not much space and had to do lots of weaving in and out. Dropped onto Ernst Reuter Platz and started to make my way up Strasse des 17 Juni (named after the East German uprising against the Soviets in 1953) Siegersaeule (victory column) in sight, dead ahead, also out of the mist, I can Just make out the 250m tv tower on Alexanderplatz. The tower which I am now looking at, was once the pride of the East German communist regime.

3km done, arrg Muppets dead ahead stopping to take pics of the “Siegersauele” when it was pointless. Must get around these lot or I’ll lose time. Its hard to imagine that I am running up a road where Hitlers troops once marched up, was fought over and then an uprising was brutely put down by soviet tanks. Right turn at the victory column and dropped down into the “Zoologischer Garten” (The Zoo). Bit narrow here but not too bad, past the Rhino enclosure on the left and then an enclosure with a black leopard or something. Back out the zoo through the elephant gate. Plenty of support here and even quite a good, funky drumming band. Up now into what was the center of former West Berlin. Just coming upto the 6km marker and we make our way past the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial chuch. This church was bombed by british Lancasters in World War Two and at the end of the war it was left as a reminder of war and its destruction. I do a quick left now infront of “Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten” (railway station Zoologicial gardens) and a quick right again down Kantstrasse just before “Cafe Kranzler” (this cafe was famous in the roaring 20’s with German film stars, society etc.

Quick check of the Garmin, am averaging 10:07 per mile pace. Its going to be bliking close. No more sights down here on Kantstrasse, just the odd sex shop on the corner and dodging muppets crossing the road.

Sophie Chalottenplatz underground station, nearly home, only 1km to go back to the castle. Running up a lovely tree lined boluevard now but can just make out the castle and blue Asics finishing arch in the distance. Even though I went for it on the last mile and completed it in 9 mins 54 sec, I did quite make my goal. Just sat now in Berlin Schoenefeld Airport waiting for the plane back to Liverpool, just checked chip time on the web and got 1hr 4min 30 sec. 1min 35 sec PB from Lichfield, my previous fastest 10km. Had to do a lot of weaving so recon could of got quicker with less weaving.

Onwards to the Southport 10km next Sunday.