The Berlin Marathon gets a lot of press, but its upstart little sibling, the Half Marathon, is just as speedy and just as popular (well, the race fills up fast). Accreditation begins in just a few days! It may be -18 degrees outside right now, but soon you'll be running down Berlin streets in shorts on a (hopefully cool yet not-too-cool, overcast, but not rainy) April day. The starting gun fires on Karl Marx Allee, and the route wends its way past central Berlin's landmarks, around Alexanderplatz and down Unter den Linden, through the Brandenburg Gate and Tiergarten park. Charlottenburg Palace is the halfway mark, then runners power down Kurfurstendamm and through Potsdamer Platz. Once they pass the Rotes Rathaus they're on the home stretch.
Spectators can easily follow the entire route with the S-Bahn, seeing them off at the starting line, hopping on the train at Alexanderplatz and catching them halfway at Zoologischer Garten, then shuttling back to the finish line.
Berlin Half Marathon
Karl Marx Allee (starting line), Mitte
April 1, 2012
