To Berlin With Love

To Berlin, With Love

This wasn’t a race. It was a reckoning.

I started under an open sky in Berlin, 80 degrees, 60% humidity, 10:40 AM. Already drenched before the first step. Two liters of water on my back, heart pounding with quiet anticipation. I felt full, steady, ready.

The first half carried me.

The second half… unraveled me.

The heat grew heavier with every mile. My body slowed. My thoughts spiraled. I cried. I walked. I doubted. I lost count of how many times I thought about stepping off the course altogether.

And still, I stayed in it.

Not out of discipline out of something quieter. Something older. Something that reminded me: you’ve survived far more than this.

There were signs along the route, Architecture rising in the distance, long shadows casting relief across pavement, strangers’ eyes locking into mine for just long enough to say: keep going.

The last two miles, something returned.

Not energy. Not adrenaline.

But something soft and electric all at once.

I crossed the finish line trembling, tear-streaked, cracked wide open… and more myself than I’ve felt in years.

Berlin didn’t give me a PR.

It gave me a mirror.

One that reflected back every mile of my story 

the strength, the surrender, the softness that never once let go.

To Berlin, with love.

To the woman who crossed the line—I’m so proud of you.

– Kalise

🕊️ Spirit: Rise & Run™