Race weekend once again!! This time I headed out to Berlin for my 18th marathon and 13th world marathon major.

I last ran the Berlin Marathon in 2017 where the expo was held at a different venue and I didn’t write a post about the expos back then and as I am getting an old boy now the memory isn’t what it once was (it’s low bar anyway) so I can’t remember much about the expo 7 years ago.

So here we are, 2024 and heading into the Berlin Marathon expo which is held at the old Tempelhof airport right in the city. It is really easy to get to from the city centre, there are two metro stops just outside of the airport 4 stops south of the Brandenburg Gate or if you’re like me, you could walk it in 35 minutes.

When you enter the expo / airport you literally go into the departures terminal passed all of the old check in desks, it is a very strange feeling but being an airport it is all well spaced out which makes it feel less crowded.

The bib number pick up and main expo area are located out on the tarmac where the planes once parked, again a little strange and thankfully it wasn’t raining.

Bib Pick Up:

After arriving late Friday / early hours Saturday, I went to the expo around 10:30am on the Saturday fully expecting big queues and long waits. Yes, it was busy but it wasn’t as bad as I had feared. This year the field size had been increased to 58,000 marathon runners in celebration of the 50th anniversary which again, means more people heading through the expo.

Once you come down the steps to get outside, runners can go into Runner Check-in and family and friends not running can bypass that queue and meet you in the expo hall / hanger.

The line for check in wasn’t too long, all in it took no more than 5 minutes of weaving up and down the queue to get the QR code scanned then went through to the wrist band pick up and on through to the bib pick up desks.

There were loads of desks available and you aren’t restricted on which desk to go to based off your race number like some other Majors I have run. This meant you can rock up to whichever desk has the shortest queue, scan your QR code again, show some photo ID (passport or drivers license are fine) and they give you your bib number and a blue cloth tote bag with a bunch of leaflets and flyers.

This step was a 2 minute job max, even heading in mid morning on the Saturday. One of the perks of being in a massive airport, they have the space to make more desks available and space things out.

Expo:

Once bib pick up is done you are filtered into the expo hall and straight into the Adidas store. I am not a fan of expos and crowded spaces like this so I took this photo and headed back out of the expo and onto the airfield, watch a bit of the kids run which was going on around the airfield then left.

Unlike the runners check in and bib pick up, the expo hall felt more crowded and more like the typical expo feel. Lots of booths and exhibitors, plenty of people packed in buying stuff we don’t really need (says the guy with 4 NYC, 3 Boston, 1 Chicago and 1 Berlin jacket).

I resisted the urge to buy this years Berlin jacket but it did look really nice.

That was it for me, I left the expo walked back up to the Brandenburg Gate and watched some of the inline skaters finishing up, the speed that they get up to is incredible! the bravery to race that fast on skates with just a helmet, elbow & knee pads is on another level!