Sat, Sep 15, 2018 - 35K - 05:00:00
35K Mega-Run to the Bye-Bye-Plastic Demo and Back
I had read that there was going to be a demonstration in Berlin Mitte today protesting the overuse of plastic and the inability of governments to create laws to regulate the production and disposal of plastic to society's best interest. It was going to start at 12:30 at the Altes Museum, so I took off from Steglitz about 10:30 heading straight to Berlin Mitte via the Park am Gleisdreieck. I stopped to ask a man on a bench near Crellstraße the best way to get to the Park am Gleisdreieck because of all the train tracks you can't cross, he saw my Warsaw Marathon shirt and asked me if it was a good marathon to run. It turned out that he was going to run the Berlin Marathon tomorrow as well as the Frankfurt Marathon in a few weeks, looking to do 03:40:00. We exchanged Marathon tips, he said the Geneva Marathon (https://www.harmonygenevemarathon.com) is particularly well-organized, unique, and relatively flat, in the warm month of May, and also has a half-marathon and 10K. 
 
I eventually made it to Berlin Mitte, crossing over the Berlin Marathon 41K marker where I saw the newly painted three blue stripes and reminisced crossing them in many Berlin Marathons of yore. At about 12:30 I arrived at the Altes Museum and found my tribe of anti-plastic demonstrators, got a "Bye Bye Plastic" sign, struck up some conversations with the others, and soon we were off, about a 1000 of us walking with music, drums and signs from the Altes Museum to the Volksbühne. When we arrived at the Volksbühne, there were about four talks by the organizer and various others, calling for both more individual changes in living habits with regard to plastic, as well as the need to put pressure on politicians and lobbyists to take more responsibility regarding laws concerning plastic.  
 
After the speeches, I said good-bye to an interesting man I had met from Denmark who spoke near-native German, which he described as his weakest language, quite impressive, and I redonned my head rag and took off on a very nice, sunny day southward toward Treptow Park for a longer 23K back home.  
 
Along the way I saw people carrying their Berlin Marathon bags, and runners who were obviously out doing their last, light training run before the Berlin Marathon tomorrow, and also workers for the marathon with official shirts. It was nice to see the city swelling up for the biggest race of the year again, which always brings back good memories of my first marathons.