Europe Recap: Berlin Marathon Expo

Continuing tradition, while we are on vacation this year, I'm sharing some photos and details from last year's trip. Last year, you got to see China while we were in Europe. This year, you get to see Europe while we are in India! 

The primary reason for our trip in 2013 beginning in Berlin was for the marathon.

Part of me wants to do all the World Majors marathons, and Berlin is one of them.  I've now done 4, but since I started my quest to do all 5, they've added another (Tokyo), so now I need to run that one as well as London if I'm going to do them all.  Still an idea I'm considering.

I don't have tons of Berlin expo photos, but it was great. 

This Brooks guy was real!  He creeped a lot of people out, it was very funny:

BMW was the race sponsor, yet another reason I liked the race: 

 

Unfortunately, no photos of the overall expo.  The outdoor part was cool, with some stands selling beer and pretzels, which made it more fun than your average expo for the non-running spouse who might accompany you.  I liked the pretzels! 

An official race vehicle spotted the night before:

 

So I posted my race recap last year, but I spent about 2 or 3 hours the day after the race in line.  This was the line:

Filled with runners, all heading to the Adidas store:

Why?  Something called mi time:

In our race packets, we got these plastic yellow Adidas bracelets (like the LiveStrong ones).  And if you went after the race (and stood in line for hours), they'd burn your race time into yours!

Far and away one of the coolest race souvenirs ever (obviously, one million times cooler since I PR'ed, not sure I would have waited for a non-PR time):