Berliner Wasserbetriebe 5 x 5 km Relay Race 2022

Today I ran with my colleagues from Ableton for the 21. Berliner Wasserbetriebe 5 x 5 km relay race. What an afternoon! I hadn’t seen some of them in person in years, and I even met a few for the first time.

My usual jogging route is one round around the Tempfelhofer Feld, the old airport, which is about 6,5 km, so this was just in my range. I ran a moderate 26 minutes, although this is approximate as my watch doesn’t even show seconds. Our team ran in 2:01:53, which put us in 346th place, just short of bronze (sort of).

It’s amazing what an event like this can do to ambition and performance. There were several percussion groups along the route, and I unwillingly accelerated passing them. Total strangers were cheering and clapping. One runner was having trouble and was walking, I tapped them on the shoulder and said we could run together, and they ran for another kilometer or so before stopping again. I hope you made it, whoever you are!

It was all wonderfully well organised. After two years of pandemic and social distancing, events like these are twice the fun. I’m certainly in next time!