Eddie booked our travel tickets and we had to get connections to get there. He had us fly into Frankfurt, Germany and then take a train to Berlin. Well, they lost my check-in luggage going at Frankfurt. They kept telling us that they were going to send the luggage on the train. That was not the case and a lie. Long story short, I didn't get my luggage until the day before flying home at Frankfurt airport. After Eddie raised hell for making a trip to the airport looking for it from Berlin, he came back empty handed. We believe it was at the airport the whole time and never sent to delivery carrier to our hotel like they said they would. German airport people were not helpful at all, in fact kind of rude. They just told us we are sorry and for us to make a claim. WTF!! Never again will we book train online again. We'll just do it in person with all our luggage! Hard lesson learned. The good thing is that ALL of my running gear was with my in carry-on. I made sure to wear my running shoes on plane and pack some boots with pair of jeans. I ended up going shopping in Berlin for extra clothes. I was just so grateful I had my marathon gear!
The day we get there, we are tired from long flight, stressed out about our bag, that we had to rush to go to running expo to get my race bib. We then went to a late dinner at a German place before heading to hotel to crash. The next morning I met Neringa for our shake off easy run. Since she got there a day before us, she had already ran some and knew her way around. It was fun to get out and run in cool temps and not crazy Texas hot weather. The weather was looking good for our marathon too. We all went to see the Berlin Memorial and that was sad to see. There is so much history in Berlin. For lunch we had a huge pasta dish and ate half a sandwich for dinner. Eddie and I then walked to shop some at Berlin's huge mall.
Marathon Day - I met Tom and Neringa for breakfast before heading to marathon start line. Eddie was so exhausted from going to the airport looking for my luggage that they said they had. So he stayed in bed and met me later during the race. I have never seen so many people for a marathon and not enough porta potty before race. People were in huge line and were getting angry because some were cutting in line and others just jumped line and running out of time! IT was not good. I always take care of business before I run and didn't have time, this time.
The weather was perfect to start at 55 degrees. I started really fast and felt good. It wasn't until mile 18, I had to stop for porta potty during the marathon and that slowed me down. I didn't let it mess with my head until I saw the 3:30 pacer pass me up at mile 22. I tried to keep up, but so many people at the water stops got so crowded that I just told myself to keep going until the very end. Just Enjoy the Run! That's Berlin's marathon mantra. I took pictures and enjoyed the rest of the run.
My finish time was 3:41 and better I expected. Not my best, but given the circumstances, I'm happy with it. I'm usually, exhausted after marathons, but felt pretty good after this one. They say this marathon course is the flattest one in the world. I guess that helped me too. We drank some German beer after the marathon and that was my first alcoholic drink since I started training. We all went to another German restaurant for dinner and was introduced to a raspberry German beer. I hate beer, but this one was yummy! After dinner we headed to the World Championship Award Celebration. It was a blast and danced the night away with live DJ at the Metropol in Berlin. Pretty cool to see the all the World Champs there to celebrate too! We headed back to room and told our friends goodbye and they had to catch a early flight back home next day.
Eddie and I decided to head to Munich on a train to celebrate Octoberfest. Not just any Octoberfest, the original Octoberfest. We got a hotel for one night because we had to go back to Berlin to get connecting flight back to Frankfurt and then home. Well, they still couldn't find our bag so, we decided to head to Frankfurt from Munich and not worry about getting connection flight. Plus, that was less stress on us.
We meet some new friends from California that also ran the marathon on the train when we first got to Berlin. We kept in touch and met up in Munich to celebrate Octoberfest. Eddie and I went to go buy our own original Octoberfest costumes to fit in. They said that 98% of the people there dress up and you don't want to feel out of place. It was a bit of culture shock for us, but so fun too. We get there and it reminded me of our Texas State Fair, except for adults...LOL! I mean, there were a few kids there in the rides area during the daytime, however didn't see any at nighttime. They have about 10 different huge pavilions that hold about 10K people in them. Inside you see long picnic tables and in the middle is the stage for live band. They have reserved seating and open sitting on a first come, first served. They have waiters serving huge liter steins of German beer. These steins are thick and heavy, like 5lbs each heavy. Since I don't like beer, I ordered half beer half lemonade beer and wasn't bad. However, I could only drink half of one and gave rest to Eddie. They sold yummy German food and huge pretzels for dinner. The also sell cute headbands with flowers for the ladies and German hats. I ended up buying both...LOL! What can I say, it finished my Octoberfest look! We only made it to 3 tents/pavilions. They had one we liked that had was more of international music. Everyone was singing to American music like karaoke and dancing on the tables since they didn't have a dance floor. Everyone was friendly and would say, "Prost" (cheers) after each song! It was such a blast!
The day before we head home, they find out lost luggage at the Frankfurt airport. We stay the night there and just go to dinner in Frankfurt for our last night in Germany. It was a great dinner and soooo happy I got my luggage. I had my Boston Marathon shoes and other nice clothes I didn't was to loose. This is a marathon trip I will never forget and huge check off my bucket list.
Till next time, keep on running!
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