It was a very rewarding weekend for Ethiopia at the Berlin Marathon, September 24-25; and for Human Tecar, too.
The day of the actual marathon, Sunday, was warm and sunny and practically perfect, as only the early fall can be in this city of symbols – home to Jesse Owens’ Olympics, Bolt’s 100 and 200m records in 2009, Goodbye to Berlin and the Wall and the new world after the Wall’s fall... And home to the world’s fastest major marathon, characterized by impeccable organization (this 43rd edition saw 41,283 runners from 122 countries; no easy task to manage, yet very well managed it was) and amazing spectator support (not forgetting the music: 80 officially appointed bands).
So were we – officially appointed, that is; to preparing, toning, relaxing and shaping up both elite and amateur runners. Human Tecar treatment stations were fully booked as early as pre-Breakfast Run on Sunday (the traditional 6-km jog the day before the main event) – in itself extremely gratifying.
Not to mention the satisfaction we felt when we saw the all-Ethiopian women’s podium, all three runners assisted by Human Tecar specialists (both in Berlin and in their country): Aberu Kebede first in 2:20:45, this year’s second fastest world time (and Kebede’s third Berlin win); followed by Birhane Dibaba (2:23:58) and Ruti Aga (2:24:41).
We were also delighted with the men’s gold medal going to an old friend of Human Tecar, someone we’ve known and admired for a very long time: Ethiopia’s 34-year-old Kenenisa Bekele, who broke Haile Gebrselassie’s national record with a time of 2:03:03; and the silver going to Kenyan Kipsang Wilson, whose physiotherapist, Frank Hartkamp, makes use of our HCR technology. As if all this were not enough to get us all on cloud nine, we were thrilled to see that Human Tecar treatment is being increasingly included in training protocols world-wide.
