Berlin Marathon

Assembled from 48 blocks · 2 evidence · 45 related

1. Story
2. First run in 1974 as a small race through the Grunewald forest in West Berlin, with a few hundred entrants. It moved into the city in 1981, starting from the meadow in front of the Reichstag with 3,486 runners from 30 nations and finishing by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. On 30 September 1990, three days before formal German reunification, the course ran through the Brandenburg Gate for the first time, and the gate has framed the finish since. The course is a flat, wide, low-turn loop through the city centre and it is the fastest marathon course in history by the only measure that matters here: at least nine men's world records were set on it between 1998 and 2022, from Ronaldo da Costa's 2:06:05 to Eliud Kipchoge's 2:01:09, and Tigst Assefa ran 2:11:53 there in 2023. Berlin's speed is not an accident of altitude or weather but of geometry — a September date, a flat glacial valley floor and very few corners.
3. Knowledge
4. Berlin Marathon
5. Chicago Marathon
6. Berlin
7. Abbott World Marathon Majors
8. Connections
9. Chicago Marathon
10. Berlin
11. Abbott World Marathon Majors
12. The first Berlin Marathon, in the Grunewald
13. Berlin moves its marathon into the city
14. The Berlin Marathon runs through the Brandenburg Gate
15. The World Marathon Majors series is announced
16. Kelvin Kiptum runs 2:00:35 in Chicago
17. The temperature penalty in marathon running
18. Berlin Marathon
19. Chicago
20. Abbott World Marathon Majors
21. The first Chicago Marathon, as the Mayor Daley Marathon
22. The World Marathon Majors series is announced
23. Kelvin Kiptum runs 2:00:35 in Chicago
24. Ruth Chepngetich runs 2:09:56 in Chicago
25. The Berlin Wall
26. Tempelhof Airport
27. The Berlin blockade and airlift
28. The Berlin sector border is sealed
29. American and Soviet tanks face each other on Friedrichstrasse
30. The Berlin Wall opens
31. Berlin Marathon
32. The first Berlin Marathon, in the Grunewald
33. Berlin moves its marathon into the city
34. The Berlin Marathon runs through the Brandenburg Gate
35. Boston Marathon
36. London Marathon
37. Berlin Marathon
38. Chicago Marathon
39. New York City Marathon
40. Tokyo Marathon
41. The World Marathon Majors series is announced
42. Tokyo becomes the sixth Major
43. Sydney runs its first race as the seventh Major
44. Cape Town is confirmed as the eighth Major
45. Cape Town scheduled to run as a Major
46. Evidence
47. The Berlin Marathon began in 1974 in the Grunewald, moved into the city on 27 September 1981 starting at the Reichstag with 3,486 runners from 30 nations, and first ran through the Brandenburg Gate on 30 September 1990. V55 verification basis: read through an attributed search summary; reported 1974 participation differs between accounts and is not reconciled by this record.
48. Kelvin Kiptum ran 2:00:35 at the Chicago Marathon on 8 October 2023, improving Eliud Kipchoge's 2:01:09 set in Berlin, and the mark was subsequently ratified. V55 verification basis: worldathletics.org was refused by this session's egress proxy; read only through attributed search summaries.