Budapest Half Marathon Race Report

by Rob Hume

A select group of seven Almosts - five runners and two supporters - made it to the club’s official overseas race, the Budapest Half Marathon. All those who didn’t missed a real gem, both the city itself and the race on 6 September. Budapest is a lovely modern city but with plenty of reminders of its imperial past and the more recent communist period. The weather was fantastic throughout the whole weekend (a bit too warm for the run maybe), which made the scenery even more spectacular, especially the stunning views from the Buda Hills and the Castle District across the Danube to the Parliament building and Heroes Square.

But it wouldn’t have been an Almost Athletes weekend if everything had gone smoothly. First crisis was the trip to the airport. Ed, Alison and Rob left plenty of time to get to Gatwick but ended up in a massive tailback within a stone’s throw of the terminal, because of a fatal accident. All three notched up PBs in a brand new event, which should be part of next year’s Road Race Series: the “1km sprint with suitcases”, finally crossing the line five minutes before the gate closed, while the advance guard of Carl, Fiona, Debbie and Mike, oblivious to their plight, were sipping Bellinis and soaking up the local atmosphere.

Our hotel - the Radisson - was very comfortable and well situated amongst the bars and restaurants of downtown Pest. On Saturday, our way to pick up race numbers was blocked by hundreds of riot police. Evidently, they knew the Almosts were in town, but it seemed like overkill for seven of us. But we soon learned that we’d strayed into the path of a Gay Pride march (and we couldn’t even blame Fletch this time). Race numbers in hand, we decided to explore the city. We all followed navigator Mike onto the first bus that seemed to be going our way, which led to a 45-minute not-so-magical mystery tour of the post Stalinist suburbs before finally being unceremoniously ejected at a bus depot in the arse-end of nowhere (oh, happy memories of “Get off bus now” in Berlin), followed by a 30 minute tram ride back into town. Here we are admiring what must be one of the best examples of neo-classical bus depot architecture this side of Moscow.

Race day was very warm but with a cool breeze in places, as about half the route ran alongside the Danube. The race itself was really well organised. The atmosphere at the start, and around the course, was excellent, and there was plenty of water, sports drinks, bananas and lemons (yes, lemons) to sustain us. However, with three of the party recently recovering from the lurgy, PBs were always going to be few and far between. And so it proved. Rob made the finish in 1:54, Ed in 1:58, Alison in 2:02, Carl in 2:19 and Debbie in 2:27 (PB!!!). Fortunately, nobody came near suffering the indignity of missing the cut-off and being forced to ride the “bus of shame” to the finish line. Fiona and Mike did a sterling job of supporting and photographing throughout. Having finished the race, runners had free use of some of Budapest’s many public pools and thermal baths, which proved a great way to relax and unwind.

With some energy still left in our legs, we rented bikes the following day and took a challenging but picturesque 45km ride across St. Margaret’s Island in the middle of the Danube, to a quaint village north of Budapest where we admired the arts and crafts before enjoying a meal, drinks and swift ride home. Surprisingly, our legs held out really well, which is more than could be said for more tender parts of Almost anatomy on the bumpy terrain. Suffice to say we won’t be sitting on bike saddles again for a while…

We all squeezed in a bit of last minute sightseeing and shopping on the final morning before heading home. Alison, Ed and Rob managed another crisis by getting lost on their way back to the hotel, arriving flustered and late for the cab ride to the airport. Would we run Budapest again? Yes, definitely. Although, of course, there’s always another city and another race to be run. We all thought we’d like to give the Lisbon half a go next year. For those of you who haven’t sampled the delights of Budapest, we can all highly recommend it. But bear in mind very few people speak English and the local bus drivers take no prisoners, so make sure you always have a map and a good navigator.