Race Date: Sunday 29th March 2026

Report by Jamie Lee

Background 

The Berlin Half Marathon is one of the “Superhalfs”, a half marathon equivalent to the Marathon majors, complete with their own medal for completing the sextuplet. They have grown immensely popular in recent years, to the point almost all of them are balloted events now. The Berlin Half Marathon as it exists today started in 1990 as the successor to two predecessor events following the reunification of Germany: The Berliner Friedenslauf (Berlin Peace Run) which took place in East Berlin, and the SCC Half Marathon in the western part of the city.

Preface

Alongside entering yet another London Marathon ballot with the usual low hopes of success, I also entered the ballot for essentially any other balloted race I could find in the hope of softening yet another ballot blow (London was yet again, a miss). To my surprise, an early June email confirmed my entry for one of the most coveted half marathons in the world, the Berlin Half Marathon!

At the time of receiving that confirmation, I was fresh off finishing Manchester marathon, so I was keen to chip away at my other race distances. I initially set the goal of a sub-90 for Berlin. Little would I know, I ended up besting my PB twice since then to my arrival in Berlin, completing my sub-90 target at the Brass Monkey Half in January, with a comfortable 1:27. In combination with an even more promising performance at Dewsbury 10K, I decided that I ought to “back myself”, and set an ambitious goal of breaking under 1:25 (an average of just over 4 min/km, or 6:26 min/miles). At the time of receiving the entry into Berlin, I had yet to break sub-20 in the 5K, so evidently a big leap from last year’s fitness.

Training

Following Dewsbury, I had a clean eight week schedule to focus solely on Berlin, which included a consistent streak of Thursday track sessions. I distinctly recall the first few weeks being a brutal set of sessions, partly due to the tough sessions, but mainly because it was raining cats and dogs week in week out. Those sessions were unbearably cold, but as the others who were willing to tough it out had put it, “anyone who is keen to improve won’t be phased by the weather”. Combined with some sneezy Sunday long runs (as an early hayfever sufferer), training went as well as it could go.

Pre-Race

In addition to the race, the trip was also very much about the food I wanted to try around Berlin as a bit of a wannabe foodie. I could honestly write a whole report about every meal I had eaten from my arrival on Thursday evening, until the night before the race. I’ll keep it short, and say carb loading was not an issue.

The race expo was based out of the old Tempelhof airport. It’s a fairly organised affair, with the option to schedule a time to enter the expo to avoid the queues. You can go either Friday or Saturday to collect your wristband, race number, and explore the various stalls around the expo, along with many photo opportunities like finding your name on the wall of entrants. The pull of a new pair of shoes was not as strong as my willingness to pay extra for Ryanair’s slimy baggage policy.

Unfortunately for any of the visiting parkrun tourists (including myself), all of the parkruns in Berlin were cancelled that weekend, so no new location for me. Probably for the best since I have a bad habit of trying hard at any new parkrun I visit (and obviously to avoid overwhelming the volunteers!) Instead, I resorted to a short run around the block, and spent the rest of the day retreating to a local coffee shop to avoid adding more to my step count for the day.

Race Day

I woke up groggily to a new time zone, something that I’d been quite worried about despite taking an early night before to negate the lost hour. “Nothing new on race day” forced me away from treating myself to pastries from a local bakery in favour of a reliable sachet of Quaker oats.

I rode the U-Bahn straight to the event village right next to the Reichstag, free travel for all runners until 7pm of the same day. The course starts along Tiergarten, with waves separating runners based on their expected finish times, and also where I bumped into Aaron Francis who was in his race shoes for the second day in a row after an impressive half marathon in another Superhalf in Prague the previous day. (Editor: Not sure if Aaron’s coach would have been pleased with him running back to back half marathons.) I had heard many numbers that morning, whether it be bibs, pace, times, but the number that remained with me as I stood in the start block was that there were approximately 43,000 participants in total in Berlin that morning from around 130 different countries!

At 10:05, we were off and dispersed across either side of the roundabout around the Victory Column (Siegessäule). Using the lap pace function on my watch has been a staple for me when chasing a time goal, as I knew it’d be a good barometer for if I was keeping on track. Combined with there being several 1:25 pacers, seemingly more than the number of Steel City present, I had plenty of physical benchmarks to keep my race strategy in check.

For the first 10km or so, I was jumping between various non-running related thoughts, watching out for the best signs (“everything is irrelephant” written on a cardboard elephant), or admiring the elegant form of the participants around me to avoid the onset of any soreness and fatigue I was slowly accumulating. When my watch beeped me at 10km at just under 40 minutes, I was still feeling comfortable, or so I thought. The “actual” 10km marker wasn’t for another 20 seconds or so after my watch beeped, and I remembered that GPS drift and racing lines existed. I had noticed the road had a series of three green lines throughout, which I assumed to be the “shortest line”, so I made a conscious effort to follow this from that point. Every subsequent km watch beep and marker after this had me trying to calculate how many seconds off pace I was. It did give me another good distraction I suppose…

At around 15km, the course takes you onto Museum Island, and past the Rotes Rathaus which is also where you meet some of the runners ahead of you looping back. I hadn’t really researched the course despite having known about my place nine months prior, so I honestly had no idea how long it’d be till I looped around myself. The crowd around here was particularly supportive as you pass Alexanderplatz, and down Karl Marx Allee where I finally saw some of the other 1:25 pacers on the other side of road, signifying the turnaround point was near.

At 17km, just after the fourth of many aid stations, there was an option to continue running in the “fast lane” or divert yourself into the “fun lane”, the latter taking you through what was dubbed an “electric tunnel?” I was mesmerised, especially after seeing a sign stating “Eliud would’ve taken the fun lane”, but I was still concerned about my pacing despite there being less than a parkrun worth of running to go. Maybe next time! The final stretch from 19km onwards takes you all the way along Unter den Linden, where the crowds were particularly loud. I don’t think I can even begin to describe how exhilarating it is when you hit the 21KM point directly underneath the Brandenburg Gate, with the finish in sight. I clocked in under 1:25, and that was mission accomplished.

After finishing, you’re given your medal and have the option for water, half a banana, and a plastic sheet to keep you warm as you make the long walk back to the baggage area. Aaron and I managed a quick debrief at the end, and I took the opportunity for a free massage. I also managed to give some cheers to some of the other Steel City present on what was a very memorable race day (the race has its own app with a live tracking feature, making it handy for spectators to support from multiple locations).