The descent of the Szabadság bridge can be a salvation at the Budapest Marathon
Levente Szemerei ran a marathon for the first time in his life and immediately won. The athlete from Szekszárd won with a time of 2 hours and 21 minutes at the 37th SPAR Budapest Marathon Festival. 3,750 people started on the 42.2-kilometer classic distance, but a total of 17,000 people ran on the different distances during the two-day event.
So far, Szemerei has been successful at shorter distances, he was a three-time national champion in the ten thousand meters, and this year he also won the championship title in the half marathon. The 22-year-old runner is already focusing on longer distances, because he wants to compete in the marathon at the 2024 Olympics. The first stop of this journey was the Sunday race, where he finished with a time of 2:21:48. With this result, he is still very far from the world leader, but he can improve several minutes in a year. Eszter Csillag, the successful women’s cross-country runner, also won with a time of 2:59:16.
3,750 runners started the classic 42.2 kilometer distance of the Budapest Marathon – Photo: Tibor Illyés / MTI
According to the summary of the organizing Budapest Sports Office, this year runners came from 830 different domestic settlements, and there were entrants from 89 countries in the competition.
Among the marathoners was our colleague Attila Rácz, who ran the 42 kilometers for the second time in his life and finished with a personal record. Below are his experiences.
“I went for two minutes and the experience – and I can be satisfied because I got everything from the race. A little more: today was my second marathon, five months ago in Helsinki I completed the 42,195 km for the first time, then in almost 3 hours and 47 minutes. As a 40-plus hobby runner who sees his abilities and limitations realistically, the idea of running a little better than this floated before my eyes. In order to do this, we went to the:45 pace runners with my high school friend, Attila Nagy, who celebrated his birthday on Sunday, so we did not run the beginning of the distance, the pace choice of our more routine runners. The special joy is that we managed to keep up with them even after 30 km, and we even had the strength left for a solid sprint in the last straight, and we finally reached the finish line with a time of 3:44:31.”
“As for the experiences: even as an amateur athlete who is weaker for such mass events, it is obvious how smooth the running of the competition is, whether it is about taking over the starting number, the cloakroom system, the route assurance, the refreshment stations, and it must also be recognized that the announcers , the mood managers and bands along the way also add a lot to the competition experience. Today’s marathon was also special for me, because I run in the city four times a week, but now further away I perceived them and the space in a completely different way, for example the Pest section between the Margit bridge and the Lánchíd seemed almost never-ending, the Szabadság bridge and the bridgehead in Buda was the salvation itself with its steeper slope than previously expected.”
The marathon could be completed in pairs or in teams of four. The President of the Republic, Katalin Novák, who started the field, also competed in one of the relays. His teammates were Katinka Hosszú, director Szente Vajk and actress Viktória Lévay. Together with the members of another marathon relay consisting of para-athletes (Attila László, Attila Juhász, Péter Boronkay, Éva Zsófia Lengyel) they ran the entire 42 kilometers.
Not only was there a lot of kilometers at the running festival, the refreshment stations of the marathon also produced big numbers. 13,000 bananas, 80,000 liters of water, 20,000 pieces of chocolate, 280 kg of grape sugar, 3,200 liters of isotonic drinks and 1,000 liters of cola were consumed.