The plan was to do some sightseeing in Berlin Friday. We ended up spending approx 4 hours at the Sport and Health fair at Tempelhof Airport. Picked up the start number, looking at and buying some merchandise etc.

The limited sightseeing in the afternoon included Panoramapunkt at Potzdammer platz with a beautiful sunset with 360 degrees view over the city. Walked to Brandenburger Tor to see the finish area for the marathon. Meet up with Joachim and Jonas for dinner at a small and nice Italian restaurant close by. Had a very nice spaghetti with chantarelle and cream sauce, not much LCHF about that… 😉

Saturday morning we did a “photo walk” around the hood. Back at the hostel we got ready for the Berlin Inline Marathon, that started 15:30. U-bahn to Französiche strasse, brisk walk to Brandenburger Tor where we meet with the rest of the Malmö City Skaters.

Approx. 6.300 participants on small wheels joined this event, the biggest inline race in the world and for the 17th time. After the mandatory and traditional Malmö City Skaters group photo we headed for the starting point. Fantastic atmosphere already, loud music and speaker pep talk.  Felt a bit nervous but after start it disappeared and got goose bumps when rolling pass all the spectators that were cheering and making lots of noise. 

During the 42 km we passed several sights and lots of people along the streets cheering. Remember especially when coming around a turn and this wide boulevard opened up, only with  roller skaters, not a car or other traffic in sight. 

Had good company by Jesper behind me during the first 30+ km. Found different “packs” to follow but feel I need to practice that discipline some more to next year.

Got really tired and ache in the lower back after 32 km. Must have been the part of bad asphalt and little uphill 😉

Reaching “Unter den Linden” with Brandenburger Tor at the end was a great feeling and also the last part before the finish line. Tribunes on both side packed with people with bells and a selection of other equipment that could make noise. On top of this loud music and a speaker working hard to boost the “stimmung” to a maximum. My goal was 2:00-2:10 and the time showed 2:02 that I am very pleased with. I like to roll as fast as possible but I also like to get most of the atmosphere and sights as possible. Bart Swings of Belgium set new record – 59:28! Guess he didn’t have time for any sightseeing 😉

Since we were a bit late for the common Rolling Vikings dinner, the Malmö crew decided to meet at Steakhouse Asador, Wilhelmstrasse 22. Recomended by Jonas and turned out to be a very nice place with great food. The company was great too :-D.

The 40th. Berlin Marathon started at 8:45 Sunday. After breakfast and checking out we went to Brandenburger Tor area to see some of the action. Approx. 40.000 runners joined and 35.500 finished. Wilson Kipsang also set new WR with nearly the same time as me, 2:03!

Since Peter had injured himself during the inline race I drove back to Malmö. Thought I should get tired but Peter’s Audi A3 was nice to drive and it turned out not being a problem at all, was a bit surprised. Left Berlin around 16.00 and returned to Malmö around 24:00.

Hope to repeat this event next year, think it’s the same date, 28 September. Registration is here and open 4 November.

Thanks to the Malmö City Skaters crew and well done everybody:
Johanna, Karolina, Peter, Oskar, Björn, Jesper, Joachim and Jonas