📖2018, Memory within a memory: Budapest Marathon

Looking back at the day of the 2018 Budapest Marathon, I can almost see the whole scene before me.

As if I were standing in the starting zone again, in Infopark.

I look around. I see thousands of runners. Along with the cheering relatives, acquaintances, and supporters along the designated course, the crowd might be tens of thousands strong.

Half the city has been closed down.

There is no trace of the usual traffic.

Silence reigns along the banks of the Danube.

This is the day of the Budapest Marathon.

Now, it's not trams screeching and cars honking, but everywhere only the tapping of running shoes, runners gliding by, music playing, and occasionally Attila Péter's voice is amplified by the loudspeaker.

It's early October, typical autumn weather. The air is fresh, a bit crisp.

The grass is still wet with dew. The trees are already turning yellow but still holding onto their leaves. A light breeze blows from the Danube. Perfect running weather.

I was still living in the Schönherz dormitory, so I only had to walk over to the race center on Pázmány Péter Promenade. I was down there in a few minutes. I didn't have to carry bags and change of clothes. I only took myself and my memories, which I wanted to sort out within me. To relive everything that had happened in my life until then, to look at them again, and then put them back on the imaginary shelf.

This was primarily why I went to the Budapest Marathon.

It's October 7th, and this date is important now not just because of the race. Exactly three years ago to the day, my chemotherapy treatment began. Three years ago on this day, I sat in the hospital chair for the first time. Three years ago, the most difficult year of my life so far began.

And now I was standing at the start of the marathon.

Race number on my chest, running watch on my wrist, refreshing gels in my pocket. Around me strangers, all carrying some story. Perhaps traumas. And maybe they all long to heal, just as I do.

– Three… two… one… gooooo! – I hear the voice of Attila Péter, the regular announcer of the organizing team, the Budapest Sports Office, from the speaker.

Bang – the starting pistol fired at the same time.

True to tradition, the main organizer, Árpi Kocsis, fired it.

At this sound, the entire field – thousands of marathon runners – moved at once.

This is a huge experience.

A collective team flow begins.

[…] „

– What I would tell my former self, excerpt

Continuation (Facebook post)