Berlin

city · earth

The capital of Germany, sited on the Spree in the Warsaw-Berlin glacial spillway — a broad, flat sandy valley floor left by meltwater at the end of the last glaciation. That geology is the reason the city is almost level, which is in turn the reason its marathon is the fastest in history. Berlin was divided by the Wall from 1961 to 1989, and the marathon course carries that history directly: it was confined to West Berlin until 1990, when it crossed the line of the former border and passed through the Brandenburg Gate three days before reunification. It is a canonical city object and is not defined by the marathon.