Marathon Guide
Marathon Date: 9/28/03
Country: Hungary
My Age: 67
My Finish Time: 4:33 * 2nd in age group
My Marathon Rating: Most Bridges
Memorable Moment: Relaxing in Szchenyi baths after race
Budapest Marathon Selection and Registration:
After reviewing the marathons available in Europe for 2003, I decided on running the Budapest, Hungary International marathon for my 5th worldwide marathon. I selected the Budapest marathon because it will be celebrating its 18th successful year and is well known throughout Europe with runners from over 40 foreign countries that run in the marathon each year. Another reason that I selected the Budapest marathon was because it was recommended to me by one of my San Diego running group friends, Gregg White, who ran the marathon in 2002. I registered for the marathon on-line on January 10, 2003, the cost to register for the marathon was $55.52. After registering on-line it only took 10 days for me to receive my race package in the mail. I received my Budapest race package on January 20th, and the package included, information about the marathon [race route, start time, etc] along with my race number #4105.
Budapest Marathon Training Program:
To prepare for the Budapest marathon I added 3 more long runs of 18, 20, and 22 miles to the marathon-training program that I have used for the USMC, Dublin, Medoc, and Monaco marathons. I also finished a number of races as part of my training program – the races and my results are as follows:
1/19/03 Carlsbad, CA ½ marathon finish time = 1:50 * 4th in age group
3/23/03 Napa, CA marathon finish time = 4:02 * 4th in age group
5/10/03 5k race finish time = 23:46 * 3rd in age group
7/04/03 10k race finish time = 51:19 * 8:17 pace
Budapest Travel and Sightseeing Highlights:
I flew out of San Diego on September 23rd at 8:00 am for my 14-hour flight to Budapest, Hungary. I arrived in Budapest at the Ferihegy airport on the 24th after making stops in Washington and Frankfurt, Germany. The weather when I arrived was raining and in the 50’s, and the taxi ride from the airport to my hotel was hectic and slow as there was a lot of construction going on. While in Budapest for 10 days I stayed in the Marriott hotel, which is located on the Pest side of Budapest, where all of the rooms overlooked both the Danube River and the Buda skyline. I arrived at the hotel at 12:00pm, checked in, unpacked and immediately fell asleep – woke up at 5:30pm, cleaned up and went out to get something to eat. On one side of my hotel was the Danube and all along the river there were numerous outdoor restaurants and on the other side of the hotel was the famous Vaci Street, which is a pedestrianized street banking center as well as a shopping venue with souvenir shops, cafes and pubs. Budapest is the capital of the Republic of Hungary and 1/3 of the city is taken up by hilly Buda and Obeda, on the western bank of the Danube, and the remaining 2/3 by flat Pest on the eastern bank.
Prior to and after the marathon I spent time sightseeing and taking pictures of the many unique sites throughout Budapest. Some of the most memorable sites that I visited on the Pest side of Budapest were: The famous Vigado concert hall where I attended a concert, Heroe’s Square where the race started, the zoo, the famous pedestrianized Vaci street, St.Stephen’s Basilica and climbed the 370 stairs to the top where there was a great panoramic view of Budapest, Anderson street with all it’s beautiful old buildings, the beautiful National Museum, the National Gallery, the Szchenyi baths which I used after finishing the marathon, and the Parliament building. Some of the most memorable sites that I visited on the Pest side of Budapest were: The Gellert Monument and Gellert baths, the Royal Castle where I witnessed the changing of the guard. I also walked around Margaret Island on the sponge path that circled the island; the island is Budapest’s most beautiful park and is located in the middle of the Danube River.
Budapest Marathon Highlights:
The day before the marathon I took the Metro, which was only a 10 minute walk from my hotel, and went to the Expo to pick up my race number, chip, and to go over the race route. While at the Expo, which only had about 10 booths, I met a number of runners from all over Europe as well as a runner from Chicago. I spent most of the morning at the Expo meeting runners and trading stories about the marathons we had run over the years. I left the Expo about 2pm to go back to my hotel for an easy 5-mile run along the Danube before I went out for my pre-race Pasta dinner. After dinner I went back to the hotel to prepare my gear for the marathon I was in bed and asleep by 10pm.
Woke up at 6:00am on race day after a very good nights sleep got dressed for the marathon, had a light breakfast and I was on the Metro at 6:45 for the 15 minute ride to the start of the race at Heroe’s Square in City Park. When I got there the start area was already crowded with runners it took me about 10 minutes to find my time slot which was already crowded with runners. While I was waiting for the start of the race I was startled, along with all of the other runners, to hear a very loud beating of many different types of drums. The beat and loudness of the drums had all of the runners yelling in time with the beat of the drums – what a great way to start the race. The weather at the start of the race was cool but the weather report said that it would get very hot while we were running the marathon.
The race started at exactly 7:30am and I was on my way to meet the challenge of finishing the Budapest marathon, my 5th worldwide marathon. The first 5 miles we ran down Andrassy Street passed the Opera House, St Stephens Basilica and over the famous Chain Bridge, with 2 large Lions guarding the Bridge, to the Buda side of the Danube. While crossing the bridge we had a beautiful view of the Royal Castle of Buda. Once on the Buda side we ran southward along the Danube until we reached our second bridge, Petofi bridge, [mile 6] which we crossed to get to the Pest side. We ran north along the Danube until we reached mile 10 where we got onto Margaret Bridge, our 3rd bridge, halfway over the Bridge we went down some steps to get to Margaret Island. We ran the length of Margaret Island and again ran up some steps to get to Arpad Bridge, our 4th bridge, to the Buda side.
At this point of the race we had reached mile 13, the halfway point of the race and my time at the ½ waypoint was 2:01. The weather had changed and it was getting very hot and some of the runners were already walking due to the high temperatures. The route took us along the Buda side for the next 3 miles where we crossed the Petofi Bridge to get the Pest side. At this point in the race I was really feeling the heat as there was no shade along the Danube – my pace started to slow down and it was clear to me that my goal to break 4 hours would not happen. We ran north along the Pest side for the next 5 miles, passing the Hungarian Parliament building, until we started heading back through the city for the last 2 miles of the marathon, which ended very close to the start of the race. Before we reached the finish line we had to run up a challenging hill when I reached the crest of the hill it was great to finally see the finish line. I had a very slow second half of the marathon – losing 32 minutes from my ½ marathon time of 2 minutes. I crossed the finish in a time of 4:33:40 and actually came in second in my age group. There were around 2,000 male runners that finished the marathon and only 9 runners from the U.S. that finished the race.
After taking in some food and water I spent time stretching out all of my aches and pains and walked over to the Szchenyi baths to relax and heal some of my aches and pains. The Baths were just what the doctor ordered, and when I finally left the Baths I did not feel any of the aches and pains that I felt immediately after finishing the marathon.