You may have heard the news already- Zev and I ran the Berlin Marathon on Sunday, September 20th, 2009....and we FINISHED IT together!! To say that it was a remarkable feat/ miracle/ sheer stubborn effort is a bit of an understatement. Most of you know that I injured my foot after our 20 mile training run, just 2 weeks before the marathon. To cut a long story short, I spent the 2 weeks leading up to marathon resting and icing my left foot. Thanks to the good doctors here (especially the local German doctors, I must say), Iended up having 3 cortisone shots in my foot and an MRI done, just a few days before the big race. I am truly the luckiest woman in the world to be married to a guy like Zev. Not only did he look after me with all the care and patience in the world, but he prayed over me, listened and reassured me when I was losing hope that I could even run the marathon, and was the best team mate and training partner that a girl could ask for. The actual race was wonderful. Wonderful in the sense that it meant so much for the both of us, considering that we had been training towards the goal of running the marathon since January of this year, but also the INCREDIBLE crowd support, including live bands, people personally calling out our names to cheer us on, and the fun of running with 40,000 other marathon runners. What an expeience. I give glory to God and all my heartfelt thanks to Zev for getting me through the run- my body was telling me to stop, especially around the 20 mile mark when the pain in my feet (both feet by this point) was at its all time high. On top of the Motrin I took prior to the race, Zev administered roughly 3 extra Motrin to me during the race. Although we trained hard and followed a training program, I was utterly exhausted by the end, while Zev looked fresh as a daisy and ready to run another marathon (just kidding about the last part, but he looked really good afterwards!) Enjoy the pics and the little anecdotes below. By the way, the title for this post "Ich bin ein Berliner" was made famous by US President John F. Kennedy. As you may recall, President Kennedy visited Berlin on June 26, 1963, and made an important speech underlying the US support for West Berlin (the Berlin Wall had only been erected in 1961). The words President Kennedy used literally translate to "I am a Berliner." The funny thing is of course that a "Berliner" in Germany is a jelly filled doughnut......"I am a jelly doughnut." Although I must add that according to my German teacher, Mona, her grandmother remembers President Kennedy coming to Berlin and said that everyone loved him and loved the fact that he tried to speak a little German. Anyway, Zev and I turned to each other a couple of times during the race and said "Ich bin ein Berliner." It was funny at the time...
This lady is from Uruguay! Of course having a father from Uruguay, I just HAD to say a few words of encouragement to her in Spanish (even though I probably needed the encouragement more than her!) The funny thing was that all the spectators kept saying "Go, Argentina!" to which she replied "Uruguay. It's Uruguay!" Pretty funny. She ran the ENTIRE flag with the Uruguayan flag draped over her! It really was quite an international event- we even passed 3 different Australian "cheer" groups along the route. Zev and I shouted out "Aussie Aussie Aussie" and received an "Oi oi oi" in response. Awesome stuff...
There were so many great live bands along the route, that I lost count of how many there were althogether. Everything from Jazz music to rock music, cheerleaders, Brazilian Samba music and even a girl that sounded like Nora Jones just singing in front of a park.
This brave man (probably a fire fighter) also ran the entire marathon in this get up. Can you imagine how sweaty he got under all that!?
Running past incredible, historic sights was very motivating and inspiring. It was also incredible to think that we were running in Berlin on the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. A side note- I am pretty exhausted and in some serious foot pain at this stage (even though my face is smiling). Zev was my encourager...
The Brandenburg Gate! Oh what an incredible sight seeing this historic monument. The best part was Zev saying "honey, we are ALMOST there, we just need to reach the Brandenburg Gate and we're done!!" Of course I gave it my all at that point. Spectators were shouting "Go Fiona! Go Zev" and I was giving it all I had....until we saw the "real" finish line- 400 meters AFTER the Brandenburg Gate. Let's just say I turned to Zev and we had a brief exhange of words....but it was all good. We made it to the finish line holding hands and grinning with relief....
We have the medals to prove it- with winner, Haile Gebrselassie's image engraved on the front. This incredible runner from Ethiopia ran the Berlin Marathon in 2 hours 6 minutes. That is about a 5 minute mile average. Zev figures he could keep up with him for half a mile. I figure I could keep up with him for 3 steps.
The aftermath...
I can't get up. No really. I can't get up, Zev....
Zev...fresh as a daisy and ready to run his next marathon. Did I mention that at mile 19 he turns to me to ask "Um, what do you think about running the Berlin Marathon again next year?"
After the race we received goody bags with water and snacks. Zev ate four of the chocolate chip bread rolls, three cookies, two bananas and a pint of beer, and then went back for another race packet.
I am exhausted and hurting but happy to have finished and to be wearing that medal.
