Sep 2008

Remember those pictures I wanted a couple days ago?

Well we took a walk back to the Brandenburg gate to get some of them this am. It wasn’t quite as nice and the back of the gate was trashed from the runners.

It was nice to see in the quiet of the morning though. Our train left at 1045 so we were in a bit of a hurry to snap some photos and get back to check out of the hotel.
We arrived at home, gloomy home in the late afternoon!

Today is the day we have been training for for 16 weeks. The amazing thing is for Curt and I this is our third marathon and they have all been held on the 28th. CMM in Nashville on April 28, 2007, Auckland marathon in NZ on Oct 28 2007 and now this one.
The race didn’t start until 0900 so we had plenty of time to get showered, eat our bagels and get to the start point. Of course it was crowded beyond belief and they even had little stages set up with people trying to lead aerobic type stretches/warm ups. Our start point was letter H which was the last of three start times. The excitement would build each time a group started with clapping, music and balloons then quiet down while we waited. Finally around 0930 we crossed the start point and the rest is a blur. Catherine took off right away but Curt and I were able to stay together thru the half marathon point. There were so many people the entire 26 miles was a wall of bodies. From the start Curt's watch wouldn’t work and mine lost the signal at 6.8 so most of the race I was calculating in km how much further I had to go.
Each time I got tired I was able to eat some candy corn which will forever more be my secret weapon because it was like getting a shot of energy. I eventually started eating the bananas and apples at the stations because lets be serious, we were running during lunch time. I don’t recall passing many monumental sights like I thought we would but it was okay because the route was FLAT!
I finished in 4:18:36 and was happy to cut 12 more minutes off my previous time. The race finished at the Brandenburg gate so that was very memorable.
Directly after you finished you were herded by the people who gave you your medal, a plastic bag to wrap yourself in, water and a bag of snacks. I sat down to rest before searching again for Catherine and Curt. On my way back to the finish I found Catherine and we headed thru the family area which seemed impossible to find anyone in. At the end was food so we waited forever to get some fries and a beer. Those Germans and their beer. By the time we ate it was time to meet Curt so we made our way back to the hotel. This was nearly impossible because the only way to get there was to cross the race. Curt wasn’t there so we decided to head for our default plan which was to meet back at the hotel. By some miracle Catherine saw Curt across the road and we tried to head to the finish and meet. This turned out to be our third directional mistake being that EVERYTHING in the place was gated off and we couldn’t find him.
Finally on the way back, nearly at the hotel we met up. After a soak in the tub and some stretching and telling stories we headed for the tapas restaurant we had seen the previous day near Alexanderplatz. I got goat cheese which we ended up putting on our tortillas (which were like potato pancakes) and some shrimp scampi dish. It all came with bread and was a good time. We turned our weary legs in early for the night.

This morning we dutifully set off with a double mission – run the required 2 miles in the training plan and scout the site of the race and possible meet up point. It was a gorgeous run with the trees changing colors and absolutely NO crowds, traffic or even other tourists. I wished I had brought my camera because due the roads being closed we had unobstructed opportunity to photo the Brandenburg gate and ring of victory.
Breakfast was a blueberry muffin at Balzac Coffee – apparently a big chain in berlin. The rest of the morning was spent browsing a antique market right outside our hotel.
The Kufferdamm looked interesting yesterday and also has the largest department store in the country, the KaDeWe so we headed that way this am. I stopped for post cards of the famous ampfulmanchen (the cross walk lights) and photos of the Kaiser church. It was a bombed out church from the war that they left as it was.

We found the KaDeWe and it was HUGE! Our first interest was the floor with the food which is more gourmet but still amazing. All throughout the floor you can eat at different stands or buy and have cooked for you the very food you pick out. We decided on more bratwurst mostly because we were starving and Catherine had a pasta salad. This was mostly what we wanted to see so we headed back to the street. Catherine wanted to go to a shoe store in Alexanderplatz so we made our way back to the subway – not without stopping for some to go Chinese fried rice and DUNKIN DONUTS!!!
There didn’t appear to be a whole lot in Alexanderplatz to see – its mostly a shopping area but you can see the tv tower.
So Curt and I took the opportunity to rest our legs for the next day. When Catherine came back we headed to another street market she had found. We also found another pasta restaurant to carb up for the race. Curt and I shared our favorites – pizza and spaghetti carbonara.

We are departing this weekend to enjoy one of the world class marathons in Berlin, Germany. We are going with my friend and training partner while in Iraq, Catherine. She met us at our house with fresh smoothies from her vitamixer on Friday morning and we set off for the train station. Catherine brought the game foodie fight (like food trivia) and sandwiches with cheese and crackers from last weekends bazaar in Ramstein. It takes about 5 hours to get to Berlin and they went by uneventfully.
The website for the Novotel Am Tiergarten hotel had a map which showed the hotel right across from the train station. However when we got out at the zoological garten (unknowingly the wrong station.) we ended up walking around the block to get back to our hotel. It ended up being in a great location – about a mile from the start of the race but was a bit expensive.
I loved the traffic lights in some locations. They are called the Ampelmannchen and are mostly foundin east berlin.

After quickly dropping our things we were all anxious to get to the expo – Curt and I asked the concierge at the hotel and he told us how to get there – our second directional error of the trip. This guy did not know that after 34 years having the expo at the Messe they had changed the location to the other side of town. We, of course, did not realize this until we rode the train all the way to the wrong place and walked around looking for other runners. Finally a taxi swept us off to the right location, although very slowly due to traffic. After awhile we just got out and walked the rest of the way. The expo was in a series of tents and building and had hundreds of people everywhere.
None of us had been mailed the entrance ticket so we had to wait in a long line for the help desk to get a ticket to be allowed upstairs to the area where we picked up our race packet and chips. With that done we fought the crowd for a bratwurst and then thru the vendors. I was able to get a lot of info on other races in Europe
Next was to fight the crowds to buy a subway ticket and get back home. Once again our bags were stashed in the room and off we went for dinner. It was getting late by this time but we set off for the Kuffersdamm which is a main shopping and restaurant street. We settled for a place called perfect pasta which was reminiscent of Fazolis or some other sort of fast food pasta. You placed your order and watched at the counter while they thru it together. The weekend was surprisingly warm so eating outside was still an option. The restaurant was crowded and included a big group of runners from Brazil. We were exhausted but not too tired to stop by Hagen Daus on the way home for some ice cream.

For the first night in a hostel I slept way better than I expected. IT was cozy up in our little loft area. The only bad part is going down the hall for a shower in the morning. But the stay came with breakfast so we got the same old European breakfast before setting out for the downtown.

We saw some of the sites around the square like the statue of Preseren with his muse, Julia and the cetromerkur store. Next up was the market where we didn’t find any souveneirs but we did have lunch. I got a pizza burek which is sort of like a stuffed pizza and Curt got the minced meat patty that is like a hamburger. The market is right by the dragon bridge so the camera was whipped out and a few photos snapped. Most of the day was spent coming in and out of shops and seeing the sights along the way.

Happily at one point we ambled back by the tea house I fell in love with yesterday. I tried peach flavor today and Curt got cinnamon. It’s a great place to stop and rest for the afternoon. A trip by the library was in order which is Plecnik’s best work supposedly. He is the architect who designed most of Ljubljana. It has horse door handles!
The Ljubljanica is the river that runs thru the center and is a beautiful place to walk and take photos.

After awhile we decided to head back to the hostel and rest up. Dinner tonight was going to be at the hostel which was okay food. Amazingly we got what we ordered because the girl that took our order seemed to have a difficult time with it. I got risotto with shrimp and Curt got curry ravioli. So there we were hanging around the bar area waiting for the cocktail party to start because supposedly from 2000 – 2030 there are cocktails for only 2.50 euro. I guess we didn’t read closely enough to find it was only one cocktail but we each got one and it was very good. It was called 5KA and had rum, sprite and Malibu rum and grenadine. A tasty way to end the trip. Of course much of the hostel stayed at the cocktail party way longer than we did.
So tomorrow we return on the train from Ljubljana to Ansbach via Munich. As it turns out Eastern Europe was not that hard to navigate and aside from a few rude people we came across was very enjoyable.