“On your marks! Get set! Go!” Or, as we say in : “Auf die Plätze! Fertig! Los!”
The 51st marathon got underway on Sunday morning, with over 55,000 runners making their way through the streets of the capital.
Starting near the famous , the runners will initially head west through the Tiergarten before embarking on a clockwise loop around the city center, passing through the districts of Moabit, Prenzlauer Berg, Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Schöneberg, Steglitz, Charlottenburg and Mitte, finishing on the Unter den Linden boulevard.
Last year’s Berlin marathon saw a double-triumph for , with Milkesa Mengesha winning the men’s race (2:03:17) and Tigist Ketema winning on the women’s side (2:16:42).
But the vast majority of participants will be aiming for significantly slower times — or indeed just to finish at all.
They’ll be cheered on along the route by hundreds of thousands of spectators, while helpers will be distributing 120,000 bananas, 80,000 apples and 1.25 million cups of water to keep the runners energized and hydrated.
According to the German weather service (DWD), this year’s race is set to be one of the warmest ever, with Berlin enjoying late-summer temperatures of between 23-29°C (73-84°F).
Among the famous faces taking part are former footballers André Schürrle (a German World Cup winner in 2014) and Felix Kroos (bother of former Real Madrid star Toni).
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