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A unique record at the BERLIN MARATHON – Bernd Hübner

He ran his personal best in a top time of 2:27:04 in 1984, of all days, a race in the pouring rain.

2005-09-18

Bernd Hübner - short before the finish-line on Kurfürstendamm 1983
© Bernd Hübner

The “record of running participation” in the BERLIN-MARATHON for Bernd Hübner is unique. The 58-year-old Berliner is the only runner who has participated in all of the 31 editions of the BERLIN-MARATHON.

Bernd Hübner ran the BERLIN-MARATHON for the first time in 1974 (it was then called the ‘1st Berlin People’s Marathon’) in the Grunewald forest, together with 286 other runners. He wore the colours of the Berlin rowing club Brandenburgia. He can be clearly seen on the starting photo at Waldschulallee 80, in the second row on the right.

He was also a part of it when the race premiered in the city with the start at the Reichstag, and again in 1990 when for the first time the race led through the newly opened Brandenburg Gate.

Special race numbers

The event organisers have honoured him at the anniversary races: at the 25th BERLIN- MARATHON he received the top elite number 25 and at the 30th anniversary, the race number 30. Now he wears ‘his’ permanent green race number ‘201’ from the BERLIN- MARATHON Jubilee Club. Bernd Hübner was originally a successful rower in the lightweight 4 and 8 boats. In 1970, the 23-year-old Hübner, who trained 6 times a week, was German runner-up in his eight from the BRC, and twice they came in fourth. “As a rower, we had to run as well, of course,” he says, and so his running career began with the 2nd Berlin Cross Country Race on the Teufelsberg mountain in 1965.

A friend convinced him to try long distance running, so he began training three times a week. On October 13, 1974 his great marathon series with the BERLIN-MARATHON began. He ran his personal best in 1984, of all years, in the pouring rain, with a top time of 2:27:04 – he no longer did much more rowing, but rather ran up to 160 kilometres a week in training.

His own running group

Bernd Hübner used to work for Telekom—now he is working for his sport. He not only runs, but for years he has been organising his own running group, meeting Sunday mornings at the Mommsen Stadium with an ever growing number of participants. Bernd Hübner, with his diverse running activities throughout the week, means guaranteed success for SCC-RUNNING. He brings beginner and expert runners together and runs with them through the Grunewald forest in preparation for the Vattenfall BERLIN HALF MARATHON or the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON. He was involved in the founding of the SFB/RBB Running Movement, which thus brought new impulses into the running scene.

“Burn off the Christmas Goose” Run

A few of his infamous races are the “Burn off the Christmas Goose” Run on the day after Christmas and the Easter Bunny Run in the spring—an ever growing community of runners joins him at Christmas and Easter to run to the forester’s house in the Saubucht (so-called Bay of Pigs)!

He has also created his own race, as well. During his training on the Havel River, he had the idea to design a race along the beautiful paths through nature. He began in 1990 with 200 participants, and now the race is always filled ahead of time with 900 runners. The Havel Race, now a Berlin institution, organised by Hübner and his wife Monika with members of the sport club Post SV, has become Berlin’s most beautiful race through countryside.

King of the asphalt

A Berlin newspaper gave him the headline: “The King of the Asphalt.” Bernd has become a Berlin running legend, similar to Johnny Kelley of the BAA Boston Marathon, who participated 61 times in the Boston Marathon, finishing 58 times (something to strive for!).

He does not only run the BERLIN-MARATHON, of course. Running has brought him around the world, from New York (where decades ago he was already drumming up interest for the BERLIN-MARATHON) to Honolulu and from the Sylt Run to the Oldesloe Run – he has been there!

100th marathon and prostate cancer

He hopes to run his 100th marathon in the year 2007 at the 34th real,- BERLIN- MARATHON. That is as far as his plans go, as long as no illnesses get in his way.

Even a runner is not safe from illness: this past spring he was totally unexpectedly diagnosed with prostate cancer. He was operated on once, and then again. This was not an easy time for him, always with the thought in the back of his mind that something could go wrong.

Despite the difficulties, he began with light training shortly after the operations and fought his way through them. Bernd Hübner certainly can be seen as a role model—prostate cancer is often kept secret by men, and often discovered to late.

Someone like Bernd Hübner does not only want to participate in a marathon, he also wants to finish with a good time, especially for the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON:

He may have overdone it during his training, and now he has meniscus pain that he had never experienced before. He now has to be operated on once more—but not before the 32nd real,- BERLIN-MARATHON on September 25, but rather afterwards in early October!

Jubilee Club

As is tradition, Bernd Hübner will be at the BERLIN VITAL fair on the fairgrounds under the radio tower, giving advice to the approximately 1,500 members of the real,- BERLIN- MARATHON Jubilee Club, which he heads, and providing for good spirits. But maybe this time one should also give him a tender pat on the back and offer words of encouragement and comfort for his attempt at his 32nd time participating!

This year the spectators in Berlin will see him running somewhat slower through the streets of Berlin with his green race number ‘201’. But Bernd will finish, I am certain—if need be, he can always walk!

Horst Milde

Here is a table of Bernd Hübner’s running success and participation in the BERLIN- MARATHON (notice when the table concludes!)