41st Berlin Marathon

loughie

Its not the € this time. Its the babysitters. I know its not ideal to fly in the day before but as it stands i'm lucky to have an arrangement for the kids :-)

Peterx

Just received the second email and once again unsuccessful. In this email they mentioned using travel operator or charity places to get in so I assume there will be no more rounds of offers.
Best of luck to all who go and it's going to be Dublin once again for me!

tunguska

Peterx wrote: »

Just received the second email and once again unsuccessful. In this email they mentioned using travel operator or charity places to get in so I assume there will be no more rounds of offers.
Best of luck to all who go and it's going to be Dublin once again for me!

Same here. Just sent sportstravel an e-mails for a quote.

Marthastew

loughie wrote: »

Its not the € this time. Its the babysitters. I know its not ideal to fly in the day before but as it stands i'm lucky to have an arrangement for the kids :-)

I've run Berlin twice and both times I flew in early on Saturday and headed straight to the expo en route to the hotel. The early flight (hopefully) means you'll actually sleep well the night before. Mr Stew and I will be doing the same again this year, it worked well for us so I'm sure you'll be fine with your arrangements

Krusty_Clown

tunguska wrote: »

Same here. Just sent sportstravel an e-mails for a quote.

Frankfurt worth a look? October 26th.

loughie

Marthastew wrote: »

Mr Stew and I will be doing the same again this year, it worked well for us so I'm sure you'll be fine with your arrangements

I'm an early bird so the early Sat flight actually suit in away. I don't want be on my feet too much the day before so it will be a quick trip to expo.
When is the best time to book the flights, should I go ahead and book or hold off?

village runner

tunguska wrote: »

Same here. Just sent sportstravel an e-mails for a quote.

Hold off just yet. You could do cologne and then run dublin 6 weeks later. As Krusty says Frankfurt is available and very fast too. Decisions.

Krusty_Clown

village runner wrote: »

Hold off just yet. You could do cologne and then run dublin 6 weeks later. As Krusty says Frankfurt is available and very fast too. Decisions.

Here's an interesting snippet from Frankfurt marathons's website:

It is possible to hand in your own nutrition for the race on October 26th 2014 until 8:00am in hall 1, basement (only signed bottles: kilometre and race number – no glass). Due to organisational constraints, it is only possible to offer this service to competitive runners (men: faster than 2h45, women: faster than 3h00) and participants who need special nutrition due to medical reasons.

Could help if water in cups is a bit of a turn-off! Also, the Monday is a bank holiday, so no pressure to head home the same day. The more I read about Frankfurt, the more interested I am.

Murph_D

tunguska wrote: »

Same here. Just sent sportstravel an e-mails for a quote.

What's that company like to work with - they seem to have guaranteed entries to all the big city events. Do they charge an arm and a leg?

Muppet Man

Just got the second round rejection.... Sad face.

Muppet man

PVincent

Package for double room incl race entry , excl flights is €528. sports travel are very good . Have been involved 4 times with them and you get great service from Martin and Collette Joyce

village runner

PVincent wrote: »

Package for double room incl race entry , excl flights is €528. sports travel are very good . Have been involved 4 times with them and you get great service from Martin and Collette Joyce

I can get a twin room in 4 star for myself and entry for 270....depends if you have spare cash. The other 260 will cover my race entries in 2014.....for a closed shop marathon like London or Boston if you haven't Thr times it might be worth it

IrishinVan

I was actually lucky enough to get in on the second ballot. My wife got in on the first so it was a relief to see that in the inbox as we're currently living in Vancouver. Now to plan all the flights and hotels. Might as well hit up Oktoberfest while we're in Germany!

tunguska

village runner wrote: »

Hold off just yet. You could do cologne and then run dublin 6 weeks later. As Krusty says Frankfurt is available and very fast too. Decisions.

Just one marathon a year for me VR so it'll be one or the other.

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Frankfurt worth a look? October 26th.

Do you know much about this marathon(is it flat)? I was looking at the results and there seem to be a good standard, although I get the feeling that the second half is harder(negative splits are few and far between).

Krusty_Clown

tunguska wrote: »

Do you know much about this marathon(is it flat)? I was looking at the results and there seem to be a good standard, although I get the feeling that the second half is harder(negative splits are few and far between).

T-Runner was posting about it (and I think has registered). I think they had a rough one this year, having been hit with the winds that we managed to avoid, but generally speaking, weather conditions are pretty similar to Dublin.

It seems to rate very highly on MarathonGuide.
Very, very flat
Spectacular indoor finish
Very well organized
Free access to swimming pool afterwards (?)
Cheap Flights (~ €91)
Cheap accommodation (good central hotels for around €40 per night, if you book now).
Basically a smaller version of Berlin (largely without the risk of hot weather).

*Edit*: Will kick off a separate thread about it.

WithCheesePlease

Has anyone started booking flights yet??

village runner

WithCheesePlease wrote: »

Has anyone started booking flights yet??

Dear enough on aer lingus. Has Ryanair opened yet ??

Jnealon

Paid 156 for flights to Berlin this year, 164 for next year isn't too bad.
I booked my flights this time last year expecting the prices to go up but they went down, by 3 euro and stayed at that price for a long time

Ferris B

I found the flight+hotel booking facility on the aerlingus website better value than booking flight and accommodation separately.

Got 3 nights accomm + flights (dub - berlin) for 683 for 2 people. Hotel is also close to finish line.

village runner

Ferris B wrote: »

I found the flight+hotel booking facility on the aerlingus website better value than booking flight and accommodation separately.

Got 3 nights accomm + flights (dub - berlin) for 683 for 2 people. Hotel is also close to finish line.

What is hotel called ?

Ferris B

village runner wrote: »

What is hotel called ?

Hotel Berlin Berlin. I think I saw the name on last yrs thread and someone mentioned it was ok.

WithCheesePlease

Right, I've cracked and gone ahead and booked my flights. I was just watching them going up and up in price so figured I'd rather have them in hand before they get any more expensive / sell out than wait and take the chance in them coming down a little.

This is really starting to add up!!

Here's where Aer Lingus announce their sale tomorrow.

IrishinVan

The best deal I've found for what my wife and I are looking for is Adina Apartment Hotel Berlin Hackescher Markt. Close to Start/Finish, good location for seeing Berlin, has a small kitchen.

village runner

Ferris B wrote: »

Hotel Berlin Berlin. I think I saw the name on last yrs thread and someone mentioned it was ok.

Stayed there for 4 years in a row. Very good hotel. If wife going you are very close to halfway and 37k....
Also the inline skating passes hotel at 5 sat evening. Have the sticks out to throw on the ground. Its abigger walk than it used to be to start as you have to go around the ling way. But a great choice

IrishinVan

We actually booked with www.flipkey.com I've used it in Paris in the past and saves so much money. We got a place by the Potsdammer Platz so we can walk to and from the Start/Finish line (don't know how packed the trains are going to be before and afterwards) and we paid 85 per night. We looked at a number of hotels and the prices are just so much higher than normal to cash in on the marathon

belcarra

Just after getting in on a charity entry so happy days!

Murph_D

belcarra wrote: »

Just after getting in on a charity entry so happy days!

Is that the RTL Charity Program, 1,000 entries available at €158? Got an email about it this morning, but wasn't sure if it's legit.

belcarra

Murph_D wrote: »

Is that the RTL Charity Program, 1,000 entries available at €158? Got an email about it this morning, but wasn't sure if it's legit.

Exactly that. I was a bit sceptical myself but the official website had a link through to it also so I figured it must be legit.

Murph_D

Cool. I'm in too

PDCAT

Yeah, i'm after registering the wife and myself through this aswell. Was originally going to register through sports international. This way might save me a few bob.