Berlin Wall 100
I’m not sure exactly who presented the idea for the Berlin Wall 100, but it came up in conversation with a group of TJM friends as a fun thing to do as a group. I immediately signed up! Going to Germany was on my 40 Before 40 List, so this was the perfect opportunity! Four Americans (me, Steven D, Oak M., and Kevin J.), one German (Jens G.), and one Brit (Matt S. – running on a relay team and then pacing after), were all set to go.
This race is HUGE. There are over 500 participants in the 100-mile event and soooo many more in the relay (they do 2, 4, and 10 person relay teams). One thing that definitely rubbed me the wrong way is that the race has a 30-hour time limit BUT you only get a buckle if you complete the event under 24 hours. I was definitely not in 24-hour shape and three of the guys (Steven, Oak, and KJ) had just run a 100-miler two weeks before.
Packet pickup was impressive. They gave you four drop bags and tags (three along the course and one at the end) that you would drop off in the morning at the stadium, a reusable cup, and an emergency blanket. They had a lot of great merch for sale and I bought couple stickers and a patch. You can choose to buy clothing, hoodies, hats, tech shirts, etc, but you don’t get an actual race shirt until the finish line!
Each year they dedicate the race to someone and have a special area for runners to pay respect to them. The woman, Erna Kelm, was printed on our bibs and on one half of our finisher’s medals. I had signed up for the “pasta party” with the 2pm timeslot so I could get my stuff and have some free food while I was at it. It was simple pasta, salad items, rolls, etc. Our group met at the race briefing and then went off to dinner at a local restaurant that had fairly okay food.
I did have one dumb dumb snafu occur. Every time I run a race I wear a sparkle skirt. WELL – I got to Germany and realized I forgot my sparkle skirt!! I was in a panic! What could I dooooo??? When I got into Berlin I saw that there was a costume store not too far away, so I stopped by there and got the only thing that I felt worked – a galaxy skirt. I learned that it was too thick, heavy, and long for use during a race, but it is a fun souvenir!
I woke up bright and early to have some breakfast at the hotel. It was a gloriously huge array of tasty things that I had come to love about breakfast in Germany – meats, cheeses, various breads, fruit, and just everything you could ever want. After breakfast, Oak, Steven, Jens, KJ, and I got onto the shuttle over to the arena.
At 6am we were OFF! Within the first mile we hit the Brandenburg Gate. Each year it changes direction, so participants next year will reach it just before the finish line. The next interesting section was going by Checkpoint Charlie and through a museum. Yes, THROUGH a museum. Definitely a first in a race for me!
Next, we saw the gorgeous murals along the East Side Gallery, which is the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall. And honestly, after this I have little memory of the amazing historical and cultural landmarks we passed. Jens told us about his experiences in East Berlin and pointed out a lot of different things that are significant to the region and significant to him personally.
Sometime in the morning, we ran by a huge slide, but there was not way we weren’t going to go down that! This is the start of my “If there’s a slide on the route, you go on the dang slide!” rule.
By the time we reached the third checkpoint, I started to get a little, ummm, disappointed in the food. If you’ve watched UTMB coverage you see them eating meats and cheeses and all sorts of hearty food. Based on the meals I had been eating during my trip around Germany, I expected something similar. But no. Every aid station (except two) had the same list of things: dates, nuts, bananas, pretzels, haribos, hard bread, water (sparkling and non), apple juice, and non-alcoholic beer. Only one of them had any type of electrolytes, one had potatoes, and another had actual variety (I took mile 35 for granted).
There were 26 (!!!!) aid stations along the race course and not a single potato chip or hot food item to be found. I’m pretty sure Oak and Jens got really sick of my whining and complaining about food. Since none of it looked all that appealing, I mostly ate dates and nuts for the first 40 miles until I got sick of them and then just tried to shove whatever I could into my mouth. As you can imagine, eating dates and nuts caused bathroom issues and I shit my guts out at every aid station during the last 30 miles.
Early, early morning warm beer and trying to eat.
I didn’t use drop bags, but if I had, I would have packed lots of fun foods and cup noodle or mashed potatoes in all three because they did have hot water at the aid stations. Lesson learned for sure. It would have been better to have had them and not needed them than to be grumpy about food the whole time.
Since I probably wasn’t eating enough calories, I had the sleepies and started to hallucinate pretty good during the night. Trees became large vases and stone archways.
The course was beautiful. I think about 20ish miles were in cities/urban settings, but the rest was along the path that the wall followed and it was gorgeous parks and woods. My least favorite section was a mile and a half of cobblestone in a forest. Yes, in a forest, so the cobblestone was so old and it was like a meat grinder on your feet. Awful.
Oh, I should also mention that we didn’t fully stay together. I can’t remember when, but KJ and Steven pulled away. Steven was really strong and KJ (fast hundred-mile runner) decided to pace him to a 100-mile PR. We wouldn’t see them until the arena the next day. Around 8am(?), Matt came to pace us. I think we were about 10 or so miles from the finish and his company was so, so appreciated!
Matt helped lead us in and told us that KJ was waiting for us just before the finish. We had planned to all change into our Ten Junk Miles t-shirts so we could wear them coming into the stadium and crossing the finish line. About two blocks from the finish, KJ meets us and tells us at the RD is probably mad at him. He got Steven all the way to the finish line so Steven could PR, but didn’t cross the finish line and just got a beer instead. It was another hour before he met us and we all changed our shirts in an alleyway.
Coming into the stadium was awesome and I am so grateful for the amazing friends and community that I have. I love these people and that I got to share this experience with them.
