The Berlin Marathon is well known for its flat course and like the Chicago Marathon, this is one of the courses where runners come to BQ, or qualify for Boston. With that said, it is a crowded course and the streets are very narrowed.

Study the route/course:
The route does not lie, those turns really take a toll on you, especially when the course is mostly crowded, unless you're in the first wave, the rest of the wave are annoyingly tight. I was happy to see the Brandenburg Gate, I was so ready to finish. One lady was crying hysterical after the finish. I felt her tears. She kept saying "I didn't think I would finish, I was so scared I wouldn't finish", (it was her first marathon), I said "it's ok, you're here, it's over, you did it. And trust me it's ok to cry, I do at all the marathons lol." I wanted to cry at mile 8 when I started to feel my legs cramping up, I wanted to quit at God knows what kilometer because I couldn't keep track of where I was, since these Kilometers are very difficult to keep up with, when all you know is MILES.

Pace yourself:
You need this advice in all your races, but especially here. Because of how crowded it is, you'll feel like you need to keep up with the crowd, and you will be swerving a lot, which can take a lot of your energy early in the race. I started running with the 4:30:00 pace group, but even they were having problems staying steady. It was a lot of bob and weave just to find an opening. If you do find an opening, stay there, slow and steady. Also, if you loose the pacers, aside from pacing yourself, also, look for the blue line streaks on the street, follow the tangents as they call it. It'll help you cut some time in your race.

Free Beer
There's free beer at the finish, lots of it. Keep in mind it's non-alcoholic beer, but it taste just as good, especially after a race. Grab one or two and enjoy, you've earned it.