The Path of the Berlin Wall

56 years ago, on the 13^th of August, 1961, 30,000 soldiers surrounded West Berlin and put up 160km of barbed wire overnight, separating the entire city. Thousands lost their jobs, families were separated and even their homes. This was another turning point in Germany's troubled history, one that is still felt today. The Berlin Wall grew, going from a barbed wire fence guarded by soldiers with guns, to a fully secured border zone, almost impossible to cross. At least 138 people lost their lives in Berlin trying to cross and only about 5,000 managed to escape into the West.

It's been 27 years since the Wall fell, and its damage can still be felt in the capital. A scar runs through the entire city, marking where the Wall had stood, and memorials scattered along it, mourning its victims.

Sunday was the 56^th anniversary of the erection of the Berlin Wall and many gathered to remember those who died trying to escape or even guard the Wall. Every year since 2011, an ultra marathon is held in Berlin, over the entire course of the Berlin Wall. Either solo or in teams, the runners run a distance of 160km, or roughly 100 miles. The record, by the way, is of 13 hours and 6 minutes!

I know I could never run that far, but cycling seemed possible. Some colleagues and I decided to try and cycle the entire length of the Berlin Wall in one day. If people can run it, we could cycle it. Our leader, William, offers to do about half the length as a tour with When in Berlin, so at least we had someone with us who was familiar with the course.

Photo credit: William Mollers

We set off at 6am, starting at the Brandenburg Gate, a historic place where many Berliners came to celebrate the fall of the Wall on November 9^th, 1989. We headed south and slowly made our way around the entire length. We started off at a good pace, stopping every so often at important sights and memorials, and taking breaks when necessary.

Here, Germany and Europe were separated until the 13th of November 1989 at 6pm.

Watch Tower near the Havel River

We passed Checkpoint Charlie, the famous American checkpoint in the centre of the city, and Checkpoint Bravo on the outskirts of the city, separating East Germany and West Berlin. At Wannsee (a big lake in southern Berlin), we took the ferry across and stopped for lunch at a Biergarten. After a beer and some hearty German food, we headed out once again, this time at a faster pace. Some of the roads after lunch were quite rough, some not paved at all, but mostly beautiful. We cycled through forests, next to canals and rivers, on roads and finally back into the city, ending our journey 13 hours later right where we starting, at the Brandenburg Gate.

Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Bravo, or Dreilinden

Wannsee

In total, we cycled 140km (we skipped a 20km detour around Wannsee and took the ferry instead), which took 7.5 hours. With all our breaks and stops, our journey took exactly 13 hours, just as we had planned.

Five days later, my thighs (and butt) are finally not sore anymore, but my head is still spinning. I learned so much that day, about “unofficial” victims, what the Wall really looked like outside the city centre, remnants still standing, how much was destroyed in order to have this built, and how much is still left to rebuild because of it. It definitely gave me a renewed appreciation for how lucky I am to have been born in a country like Canada and how fragile it all is.

Near the very first Checkpoint to have opened on November 9th, 1989

I'm alive!!!!

The route itself was gorgeous, well marked and easily to follow. Other than a few parts that were quite rough on the bikes (big, uncared for cobblestones paths, for example), but for the most part, it was smooth sailing. You can be sure I will be doing this next year again!

Hey There Stranger!

Holy moly has it been a while since I've shown my face on this part of the internet! I have been so busy these past four months, and to be honest, haven't really had any motivation or inspiration to write. Here's what I've been up to recently.

In April, I ran three half-marathons and as you can imagine, ended up getting injured. In hindsight, three may have been a bit much.... I busted my knee somehow and though I'm still not sure what the problem was, my physiotherapist told me today that it's all healed! Only took four months..... Though I doubt the lesson was learned! I also started working with Fat Tire Tours Berlin, where I work as a tour guide on bike. It's a fantastic job (even on rainy days) and I'm so glad to be able to do something I love and have a great group of people to work with.

In May, I headed to Slovakia, where I ran my first Spartan Race. This year, I decided to do less half marathons and do something different; obstacle course. So I opted to do a Trifecta, which includes doing the three distance Spartan offers: Sprint (5+km), Super (13+km) and Beast (21+km). The trick is that you need to finish all of them within a calendar year. It gave me the perfect opportunity to travel a bit as well! I defeated the Spartan Sprint, I visited Bratislava, a beautiful city and a few castles along the way. The rest of the month was spent working and running (or trying to with a bad knee).

In June, I celebrated my 23rd birthday, and headed to Paris for another Spartan Race; the Super. That one was slightly easier than the Sprint, somehow, even though I was covered in cuts and bruises! My parents were in France at the same time, so we met in Paris for a few days. I hadn't seen my dad in almost a year, so it was a fantastic place to be reunited! Berlin in June was gorgeous, so I enjoyed as much of the summer weather as I could! I'm still discovering new things about this city every single day.

In July, I headed to Edinburgh to run the Spartan Beast, a half-marathon distance obstacle course. It was one of the toughest races I've ever done, it was freezing cold, raining, extremely foggy and windy, but I finished it and if I can do this, I can do anything! For a prairie girl, running up and down mountains for 6 hours with obstacles in between is quite the feat! I got to enjoy the beautiful city with a good friend, then headed back to Berlin, where the weather was much less than desirable, but there was work to do and tourists to entertain!

Now August is here, and I can't believe how fast time goes! This month is going to be action-packed. In just a couple of weeks, I will be heading to Iceland to run my second marathon ever! My Scottish bestie Megan will be meeting me there and after the race, we will be heading off on a road trip around the country. We already have a few things booked, our tent, GoPro and gadgets are all ready to go, now we just wait (im)patiently!

As you can see, lots of things happened in the last four months and I will try to catch up on all the races, trips and everything I've been up to in the upcoming posts.

Airport Night Run 2017

Saturday night, I ran my second half marathon of the season, and of the week! I ran this one last year and absolutely loved it. Despite the fact that it's 6 days after the Berlin Half, I wanted to do it all over again!
It was, once again, the perfect day for a race. The weather settled, and the temperature was perfect. Just chilly enough to run comfortably and no wind! That alone was a blessing, considering we were running on an airfield!
Yes, you read that correctly! This race takes place on the runways of the new airport in Berlin which has yet to open. That airport has been a total disaster and the opening keeps getting delayed every few months. So for now, it is a pretty great spot for a night run!

I ran a bit slower than I had hoped, but with my injuries, I am glad I finished at all! It was a really great race and my running crew was there to cheer. They were probably the loudest people there!

photo credit: Fab @adidas Runners Berlin

The second race of the season is done, I got my glow in the dark medal and a beer at the finish line as per race tradition! Next race is in 2 weeks!

Berliner Halbmarathon 2017

Sunday I ran my third Berlin Half Marathon! Just like last year, the weather was perfect! The sun was shining and it was quite warm outside, at least in comparison to the couple days before and after! Just like the last two years, it was a hell of a lot of fun.

photo credit: Hannes Glawe

I absolutely love this race. I get to run through Berlin, past so many really great landmarks and surrounded by 30,000 other runners. It's such a rush to be around so many other people on their way to accomplishing the same distance. On top of that, all the people who come out to cheer us on is one of the best parts!

This year, I got to run as a member of adidas Runners Berlin. I joined them in February and have been running regularly with them ever since. For all the major events, we get our very own race shirts, some kind of race base, where we can meet before and after the race and so it's kinda of like a "VIP" treatment for the run family. We also get to hang out with other adidas Runners from all over Europe! I will definitely talk more about that in a later post, don't worry!

photo credit: adidas Runners Berlin

Although I didn't run as well as I had hoped (2:21:33), I still finished the race with a smile and got a beer and my medal at the end! It was a great start to the race season and I can't wait to see what this year has in store for me!

Let's See How Far We've Come

I'm back!
I haven't written anything since July.... I tried, many many times, but I just didn't have the motivation anymore, then when I changed jobs, I just didn't have the time anymore. I did miss blogging, but couldn't bring myself to pick it up again. Then my sister messaged me yesterday asking me to write more and even giving me a list of ideas to write about! So I might as well write something for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and after that, we will see what happens. I have a ton of stuff to catch everyone up on!
2016 has been a rollercoaster of a year. A ton of good and a whole lot of bad as well. Even though the bad is easy to remember and complain about, I will try to concentrate on the good. After all, the good parts of life is what keeps us living.

2016: A Year in Review

January

January was amazing. I left Winnipeg on January 5th to start my travels in Great Britain. I landed in lively but rainy Dublin, explored the overwhelming Cliffs of Moher, spent a few days in Belfast and took a tour of the breathtaking Giant's Causeway, then flew to Glasgow. This is where things changed for me. Walking through Glasgow and taking a trip to the Highlands up to Loch Ness is how I fell completely in love with Scotland. Even more so in Edinburgh. There's just something about the Highlands that stay with you, touch your soul somehow. Edinburgh, this beautiful, old city where you feel like you stepped through time as you walk down the Royal Mile, was incredible. After the short love affair with this incredible country and vowing to come back as soon as I could, I headed south to Liverpool, to follow the steps of The Beatles. Heading more south, I visited a friend in Bristol, and together we visited Stonehenge before I made my way to London.

February

I finished my incredible trip with 10 days in London where I stayed with a friend of mine. Admittedly, I spent most of my time on the Tube, trying to get to one end of the city to another in order to really see as much as possible, but I did explore a whole lot of what London had to offer, including the Harry Potter Studios, one of the highlights of the trip! After fast-paced London tired me out, I flew over to Germany to visit my host family in Kassel, who had hosted me during my student exchange in 2013. I visited for a few days, but soon enough, it was time to start my new life in Berlin, where I had decided to spend a year. I was living in a hostel in the mean time and had a job lined up at a museum, so everything seemed to be coming together nicely. I started my job at the museum, which ended up being an unimportant internship where we had maybe one task a day and the rest of the time we tried to keep ourselves busy with random things on the internet (or blogging, in my case). I finally found a temporary apartment when my hostel room was robbed clean... I lost all my valuables aside from my phone, laptop, passport and money, which I thankfully had on me. But that meant my GoPro, my brand-new Polaroid camera, all my charging cables (including my laptop cable), my backpack which they used to take everything, and heartbreakingly enough, my running shoes. I gave a statement to the police (all in German, I might add), and then called my mom, crying. She told me to wipe my tears, that things would turn out okay. And they did.

March

March was a good month. Though there wasn't anything incredible that happened, it was when life seemed to have finally stabilized itself. I joined and sometimes organized a running group, where I met my running friend Gaurav, and just simply enjoyed living in the wonderful city that is Berlin.

April

I started the month by running the Berlin Half Marathon, which didn't go quite as I had hoped, but it was still a great race. The weather was incredible and I was lucky to be in Berlin. A week later, I ran the Airport Night Run, another half marathon, this one taking place on the not-yet-finished airport just outside Berlin, where I beat my personal record by NINE seconds! At the end of April, I found a new job in a restaurant, which was full time and paid a great deal more than the internship salary of the museum. So I went from invisible intern to full-time waitress.

May

In May I found a new, more permanent place to live and spent a lot of time running around the neighbourhood, which bordered the great Tiergarten, the "Central Park" of Berlin. I got injured, of course, with a case of Achille's Tendonitis, but that wasn't going to stop me. I joined the gym across the street from my apartment and started working out instead of running.

June

For my 21st birthday, I flew to Scotland and ran a half marathon on the Isle of Skye, where I renewed my deep love for the country. I camped in a campground just outside the capital of Skye, Portree. The whole island seemed to be straight out of a Scottish legend. Every gust of wind, every rock, mountain, moor and river has a story and you can feel it surround you. I dream of going back to Skye just to see its beauty again. Once I got back to Berlin, my parents came to visit for two weeks and together we explored a bit of more Berlin together. We hadn't seen each other in six months, so you could imagine how good it was to see them!

July

I worked hard in July, barely taking a day off, slowly dying from the suffocating heat. It seemed to be the month of travelling for everyone else as I had a ton of visitors! There was a solid two-week period where I was constantly spending time with people from home that were in Berlin! Between that and the running, it was definitely not a boring month.

August

In August, I ran my 10th (yes, TENTH!) half-marathon! I ran it in Rostock, a small harbour town in Northern Germany. Though the terrain and route was clearly never meant to be ran as a marathon, it was still a beautiful area and nothing beat the feeling of hitting the double digits. Right after I got back to Berlin, it was now my sister's turn to come visit! We found each other at the airport, nearly in tears, and then made sure to see as much of the city as possible. My sister really did her research; she had a list of things she wanted to see and what others had recommended she saw. We topped off her visit with a quick day trip to Tropical Islands, this amazing indoor tropical world just outside Berlin. Right when she left, I found a new job at a new restaurant as the boss of the other place had decided to shut down the restaurant and gave me a week's warning, so miraculously, I managed to find something else very quickly.

September

I slowly started adjusting to the new job, with an insane schedule. We were so low-staffed that we were all working way too much. But they invited me to join them in a team run in the Olympic Stadium. These types of run are very popular in Berlin; teams from different companies get together to run a 5km race or something as a relay. We definitely weren't the fastest, but it was so nice to be part of the team! The rest of September was spent really training for the impeding marathon, though it was really tough as we had a crazy Indian Summer with temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius...!

October

I ran my first FULL marathon in October! It was most definitely not the time I had hoped for, but I finished it and I was damn proud. I had met my mom in Munich to then road trip together to Lindau, a beautiful city-island on the Lake Constance in Southern Germany, where the race would start. This marathon is quite special: it stretches over three countries over its 42km. During this run, I ran in Germany, Austria and Switzerland! It's an absolutely beautiful area of Europe and I'm so glad I got to see it. We even did a small detour to visit Liechtenstein, and Rothenburg ob der Tauber on our way back to Munich. All in all, it was a really, really great trip.

November

Complaining of stomach pains, I went to my doctor to try and see what was wrong, and was sent to a specialist, who told me it was appendicitis and that "I have time today if you want, we can have it out within the hour, or we can wait a couple of weeks to see if it gets worse." So, 2 hours later, I woke up post-surgery. Talk about Germany efficiency! I was in the hospital for two nights, and then within 5 days, was back on my feet as if nothing had happened. Of course, one of the incisions got infected and I had to get it re-opened and cleaned out, because life can never be that simple, but once that was done, all was well again! While I was recovering, I took an online TEFL course (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and got certified to teach English. After sending a few emails to different schools, I landed three different job interviews and got two of the jobs! On top of offers to hire me once I got my visa for next year!

December

Christmas time in Germany is like non other. Markets and beautiful lights everywhere... It's magical. My good friend Megan came to visit and we explored the Christmas Markets as well as all the rest of Berlin, as any good tourist should. The day after she left, there was an attack on a Christmas Market in Berlin. One of the ones I had been too a couples day prior. It was heartbreaking and terrifying, but the Berliners are a tough bunch and within a few days, life went back to normal. I, on the other hand, ended up on the news across Canada, radio, television and online, as I gave an interview about the events. I hadn't been there the night of, but as a Winnipegger/Canadian in Berlin, they had wanted to know what I thought. I got my fifteen minutes of fame!

Christmas rolled around and it was a good one. I spent a lot of time on Skype with my family, had dinner at my boyfriend's parents' place and worked quite a bit as well, but all in all, it was a good holiday season. Berlin has truly become home.

Now here we are, it's the end of the year, and I'm looking back on this incredible year. So much happened in 2016, and I cannot wait to see what 2017 has in store for me.

What are your best memories of 2016?

Berliner Halbmarathon 2016

Last year, I ran the half marathon in Berlin and it was a really great run. Beautiful course, amazing crowd support, tons of runners and an incredible energy. I didn't think the opportunity to run it again would come so soon!
Once the idea of moving to Berlin had become slightly more real, I registered for the race. I registered even before having a plane ticket or having any concrete idea of my plans. I just knew I needed to get myself to Berlin and experience this run once again.

So I did! It was such a gorgeous day! It was about 20 degrees, bright and sunny, with a breeze here and there.
A few weeks ago, I met Gaurav in a running group. Both of us we're training for this race, so we decided to train together and maybe even run together. Though by the 7km mark, I couldn't keep up and we separated. I was dealing with some nasty shin splints in my right leg and they started feeling better around 9km.

I was running at a pretty good pace all the way to 10km, then slowed down considerably. I was exhausted, having barely slept the night before and dealing with the pain of shin splints also takes a toll on your body. I do also have to admit that I really wasn't ready for the hot weather...! There were time during the run where I barely even knew if my legs were still moving or not. All I knew is that I was going forward somehow. I quickly adopted the 10-1 run/walk method, which really helped keep me going, though I definitely walk most of the last 2km. Once I turned the corner and saw the 21km flag, I gathered my last bit of energy and sprinted as fast as I could, zig-zagging between people and crossed the finish line.

I finished with a time of 2:20:01. This is my worst time since my first ever disaster-half.... I'm honestly really disappointed that I couldn't at least do my average of 2:15. My goal was to try and beat my PR of 2:07, but it just wasn't possible.
Gaurav, by the way, made an excellent time of 2:02:38!

Not every race will be a good one. I have to keep reminding myself that I crossed the finish line. I finished. I have to be proud that I sprinted to the finish line instead of walking. I have to be proud that I'm barely sore today. I have to be proud that this is my seventh half marathon in less than 3 years.

I've got a few more races coming up, and you can be sure that I'm going to train even harder for those ones. I don't expect to beat my PR, but I now have even more motivation to beat my average.

Here are a couple facts about this year's half marathon:
-32,753 people registered for the half marathon, only 11,964 of them were from Berlin.
-103 different countries were represented
-25,000 liters of water was poured for the runners on the course and at the finish line
-Over 250,000 people came to watch and support the runners
-540 police officers watched over the course, keeping it safe for runners
-About 38 bands played music along the course
-The winner of the race had a time of 59:58

Bier Yoga

Yoga and beer... Both of these things are great separately, but what about combined? Many yogis would shutter at the idea of combining the two, but, it's actually kind of a hilarious and lovely idea! Why hasn't anyone thought of this years ago?!
Bier Yoga is a new trend here in Berlin and the title says it all: you're doing beer and drinking yoga  doing yoga and drinking beer! I decided to try it out, even though I have never been in a yoga class in my life and knew I would probably fail epically.

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We gathered in this sort of bar (the location changes from time to time) and everyone socialized, grabbed a beer and sat down on their yoga mats facing the stage. Jhula, the instructor started off by asking who had never done yoga before, and a good chunk of us timidly (or proudly) raised our hands. I have to admit I was quite relieved to know I wasn't the only beginner in the room. Then she asked who had never drank beer before, and of course, we all laughed as we were all experts in that domain.

Already, you get a good feel of the atmosphere. It's relax, friendly and totally welcoming. I've always been reluctant to go to a yoga class simply because it's so serious and I would be afraid of making mistakes and giggling at my lack of flexibility. At Bier Yoga? Everyone giggles and laughs at their mistakes and at the hilarious ways we use beer bottles to help with our yoga poses.

I definitely need to work on my flexibility...  Sign me up for another class!

It was honestly such a great session! I will definitely go back. It's only 5€ plus however many beers you decide to get. It's a great environment and an awesome way of getting people curious about yoga. If you're ever in Berlin, definitely go try a session of Bier Yoga. Whether you're a pro or not, and whether you understand German or not, you're definitely going to have a great time.

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Prost!

Fitbit

About a month ago, I got myself a Fitbit. It's basically an all-in-one watch.... I've needed a watch for a while and thought this one could be really useful, especially with all the running I do!


I decided to get the Charge HR. This one has a heart rate monitor on top of the pedometer and watch setting. It also tracks your sleep, distance walked, active minutes, calories burned and even how many floors you've climbed! The battery also lasts about 3-4 days, so you rarely have to worry about charging it, or worrying about it dying halfway through a run. The only downside is that it's not waterproof....

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On the app can set goals, see your progress, track how much water you drink or what you eat, track your weight loss, even indicate which arm you have it on! (You can also set a silent, vibrate alarm so you don't have to wake up your partner when you go running at an ungodly hour.) As for setting weight loss goals, you can customize your weight loss progress, depending on how much you want to lose and how fast, then the app will help you figure out how much of a calorie deficiency you need without you having to calculate it all yourself (I can't math to save my life so this is super useful!)

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So far, I really love this thing and would definitely recommend it to anyone. It's definitely giving me the motivation to walk the extra 5 minutes to get my 10,000 footsteps or those few extra calories.

What's your favourite fitness tracker?