We walked across a former airfield, the wind in our faces, surrounded by cyclists, skateboarders and runners. This was marathon day minus 1, Saturday, registration day. Eventually we found the entrance to the Berlin marathon registration expo, heavily sponsored by, no let’s not mention the sponsors. Without them it wouldn’t happen but they got enough airtime. Colleen and I made our way through the myriad of checks, id and marathon pass shananigans, funnelled through to the registration counter. Berlin is funny, I’m never sure which language I should be using. Everyone starts with English and because I don’t wanna be a tourist, I answer in German, they reply in English and the game continues. Anyway, everything goes smoothly and we get our tracking chips (No salt and Vinegar) and number bibs. Finally we meet up with our support team, Heike and Alicia, we make our way out and home. But not before buying some merch and chatting to the antipodean scientist at the Super Sapiens stand. We discuss the future of sport, nutrition and pretty much everything. He was a pretty switched on bloke and I wish I had gotten his email.

Saturday evening we ate a vegetarian Russian stew that was absolutely delicious. Wish I could remember what it was called but anyway it was exactly what I needed pre-marathon. Hang on, I know what it was called... Mazel Topf or something along those lines.

Now it’s marathon day and after my normal porridge breakfast, we meet up with the Adidas sponsors film crew who interview Colleen and myself, more Colleen less myself! I had maybe two words and a few nods. Colleen explains how nervous and then I am asked to add a few calming words in German. So the German entrant in the Adidas team, Colleen, is half German but you know what, that fits in perfectly. Germany is a place blessed with diversity and we are all German, some more than others. Here we are in this wonderful city about to run around it with everyone else from all over the place. My world completely! Colleen was running because of the legacy that she had inherited. Her words: Her grandad ran, her dad ran, her uncles ran, her brother ran. Now it was her turn.

We listen to the inspiring stories of the other runners in Colleen’s team plucked from various places in Europe. Their stories, I heard for the first time stopped me in my tracks. These were people who had come through some form of adversity. They were here and they were all running.

We soak up the atmosphere as we make our way to block K, the last block, the block for the newbies the 5 hour plus runners. I like to think of it as the block were everyone is welcome and we were. The vibe is fantastic and our fellow runners are dancing and singing to the DJ. Wave after wave of runners set out and we shuffle forwards, slowly being sucked in to the start line.

We cross the line and immediately it’s clear we are going to struggle to hit our desired pace, there are so many people. We shimmy and slide past the multi coloured array of runners, I’m careful not to stress Colleen but she’s fine as she effortlessly glides along. We constantly check our heart rates and make sure we aren’t going too fast, no danger there, someone was always in front of us. That proved to be the case to the finish although it served as a pace checker and probably not such a bad thing. We chatted and applauded the many bands along the route, we met Colleen’s friends who cheered us on at various stages. Along with the spectators who shouted our names telling us how good we looked. Mostly though the Americans, of which there are many in Berlin, were the most vocal and personal, for them we are thankful.

"Colleen, you are looking great, go for it"

"Looking good Gaeeery"

Made us feel special and we always returned their support with shouts of "Thanks or "Cheers mate".

The spectators get my applause for turning out and making us feel good, their enthusiasm fueling us, reminding us that we are all just people on the same planet, all out for a fun day.

Thank you!

The many kids who lined the route high fiveing us. I like to think they’re sucking it all in and one day they’ll get out there running.

Without those people it would be a normal Sunday morning run so I’ve huge respect and appreciation for everyone who takes part by giving up their day to cheer us on.

Massive shout out to the various bands blasting out Samba, African drummers, techno DJ’s, indie rockers, old man with a horn, single drummers and make do ghetto blaster party people. You are also in my hall of fame, you probably don’t realise how important you all are to the runners but you are, because you bring the vibe. Colleen and I, we always applauded and whooped as we passed them.

Like those before us who crossed lonely savannas before us, Colleen and I made our way through the various districts of Berlin, Colleen keeping me informed of where we were. I am always aware that we aren't really doing anything special. We are built to do this, it's in us, all of us. It just needs awakening.

Get off your sofas people, ditch your cars and join the party.

Run, walk, cycle, get out it's waiting for you all!

Normally I’m running around the Eifel, a beautiful, hilly, forested area of western Germany. I’m sucking in the vibe of the trees. But here it’s wall to wall people and concrete, we are absorbing the atmosphere and taking in the architecture of a city that was flattened to the ground 50 years ago. We are running through that history.

As we discussed the various stuff that pops up inside your head while you feet are tip tapping the streets of Berlin and the endorphins are warping your version of reality. I wondered how those forbears of ours would react if they realised that people would actually pay to run and be celebrated for it, thousands of years later. We joked about two hunter gatherers sitting around a fire 40,000 years or so ago, hunter gatherer number one, she turns to her colleague and says. " Brian, I wonder if people will be running more than 7 hours in the future to get around like we do, to get food, visit relatives or just move to their next house."

Hunter gatherer number two, Brian, he's a bit of a thinker . He looks out across the night sky, his eyes alight in the glow of the stars that were so familiar to him. He screws up his face and replies.

"Naaaa Donna, in the future they will be able to run much farther, much faster than we can now. Everything gets bigger and better, look at the length of spears in the last 12 moons. In the future we will all be super runners"

Well, maybe not!

But it amused us as we crossed into Moabit, a district of Berlin, that looks nothing like a savanna.

My plan, our plan, was to get to 30km and see how the world looked like from there. The world being our legs and more importantly, our mindset, the bit where you just really cannot see past the next 10 metres, let alone 10 kilometres.. Well we got to 30km and Colleen looked and moved like she could go on forever. Although she complained that her legs no longer belonged to her, our pace had not dropped, I was impressed so it was business as usual, one foot and then the next. At one point though I decided to eat an oat bar I’d tucked inside my running belt, I’d been looking forward to it. Unfortunately it was bloody dry as a bone and I was slowly choking as I ran along trying to squeeze it past my oesophagus while still running. It wasn’t happening and Colleen was looking concerned, so cheekily asked a passing runner if we could have his water cos my dad is choking was her plan. Luckily he agreed and the water saved my life. We passed him a minute later and I thanked him saying exactly that, you saved my life!

That bit of drama over we got to 40km and Colleen decided she needed a story to get her to the finish.

I retold my white tiger Viking and German Panzer Division bedtime stories that she loved when she was small and then... there it was!

The Brandenburg Tor, right in front of us. The finish!

We put on our sprinting shoes on and with massive smiles on our faces we raced towards the Brandenburg Gate, ready to go through it, hands in the air. Except that the gate wasn’t quite the end! The big blue blown up finishing thing was another 100m.

We weren’t that happy about that but smiled and ran on.

Crossing the line together!

The euphoria of finishing slightly masking the horrible pain in our legs.

At this point I don't want to stop but I don't want to go on either.

Weird!

An alcohol free Erdinger Weiss Bier and a few bananas greeted us.

We met up with our support crew, now enhanced with Colleen's friends, Colleen's boyfriend Dan and his Dad, Mark and they hugged us and congratulated us. Poor them, we couldn't have smelled worse! Again big kudos to the support team who, and I havent mentioned that, screamed our names at various stages on the route.

The journey home was enhanced by the group of Kenyans playing African Music from a speaker on the underground and chanting "Kipchoge, Kipchoge..."

Before I end more kudos to everyone who manned the drinks stations and massive congratulations to Tigst Assefa who smashed the world record.

Thus ended Colleens first marathon!

Can't wait for the next marathon, for me it’s Sunday in Cologne. For her, who knows but I’m confident she will be back for more.