Berlin Marathon is as special as you expect for one of the Majors. It's well worth participating in as many of the pre-race events as you can to enjoy the atmosphere that builds throughout the city.

The race information is sent through regularly from months in advance and is very clear. Once you're at the expo, you soon get a feel of the magnitude of the event you're about to run in, as it is held at the former Flughafen Tempelhof (airport) on a massive scale. You have to walk through pretty much the entire site to get the race pack, t-shirts, etc but this is all part of the fun!

On the day there was plenty of space for runners to prepare and the bag drop was easy to navigate. Once in the starting area, there was a real party atmosphere with a little warmup and some good tunes to get everyone pumped up and ready to run.

The course is extremely flat and takes in some wonderful sights around the city. There's plenty of water / aid stations, and the use of re-usable cups that were given out at the expo was encouraged, with water available for refills. Despite this, the sea of plastic bottles on the ground around the water stations was quite slippery and dangerous to run over at times. More needs to be done here!

At the end of the race a pint of beer was handed to me and I was offered a free massage, which I was happy to accept. As with all sizeable events, make sure you pre-arrange where to meet your family and friends, as there is very little phone signal for quite some time.