Last Day in Berlin

(I've actually already left Berlin and am writing this from Hamburg, but forgot to blog before I turned off the computer this morning).

Today's run was great.  Really great.  The temperature was divine: around 15C.  There was absolutely, positively not one single chance of overheating.  In fact, when I was standing outside waiting for my Garmin to load, I felt almost chilly.  Not quite chilly.  But almost.  Heaven!

And my run was equally good to go with this great weather.  I think that I actually held some pretty good paces for a while (there was the inevitable red light or two, so my time isn't completely accurate, but for me it was still pretty good).  My Garmin wanted to pretend that I ran something like a 6:30-minute mile pace for a bit, but I think it was just trying to flatter me.  It was a good run, but not that good.

Tomorrow is a well-deserved day off, then I have a 3-mile run to do.  That will likely take place in Hamburg, although I have to figure out a good place to actually run here!  Where I am staying is not exactly ideal.  Definitely not Charlottenburg-sized sidewalks.

She who hestitates gets rained on

Yet again with the weather forecast: when I got up this morning, I checked the weather and was told that it would start raining probably around noon and keep raining for the rest of the day.  However, when I went outside to run around 9:30am, it was already raining.  *sigh*

However, this was not drenching, awful rain, more of an intermittent drizzle, so really I can't complain.  I was a bit annoyed with myself for not just going when I got up, since it hadn't started to rain at that point, but it turned out fine.  It is good that I went when I did since now it is not only raining pretty hard, but there is also a thunderstorm.

Today I got a 2-4-1 in the form of scenic routes.  First, I ran around a local lake:

Taken yesterday, when it was not raining.

Running half-way around the lake was only around 0.8 miles and today was 4 total, so I decided to add on and see where I wound up.  I managed to make my way back to yesterday's palace, although I didn't actually have much to go by the time I made it there.  So it was mostly just running to the palace, plus the lake.  However, running to the palace (from the point where I started) was also not too bad because there really aren't many stops along the way.  In contrast to yesterday, I only had one red light where I had to stop.

Berlin's sidewalks remain spectacular, at least in this region.  Today there were two pedestrians plus a woman in a wheelchair and there was ample room for me to keep running.  Well done Charlottenburg!

Under the lindens

I am in Berlin and as I guessed, it is flat.  Pretty much completely flat.  Bit of a change from Austria!

Today's run was very nice.  I didn't get out until after 10am, but it wasn't too hot.  This is a nice change from lots of other places I have been lately.  Also, there was a cool breeze and it wasn't too humid.  Apparently, it is unusually humid for Berlin these days, but that is a pretty reasonable amount of humidity for someone who has spent time in more southern climes.  I found it quite nice.

I'm staying in Charlottenburg, which is a great place to run.  The sidewalks are huge.  You could probably fit 10 people across them, seriously (maybe not 10 big people).  But there is no difficulty when you are running to avoid other pedestrians.  I find this great.

This morning, I ran to the local palace and back.  It's pretty sweet because there are huge gardens and you are right by the Spree, which is the local river.  The run there is slightly less pleasant because you can hit a lot of red lights, but that's okay.  I didn't worry about time this morning as a result.

Tomorrow, I can go run around a local lake.  Not a bad place to be situated to do some running!

One thing that is slightly irritating: there are a lot of linden trees in the area, which means a lot of linden sap on my shoes.  Ah well.