Budapest Sports Office (BSI) - Conference, 25.02.2024

"The Budapest Sports Office (BSI) showed a new side of itself at their weekend event on the shore of Lake Balaton.

At least to me, as an "outsider" who, over the past decade, has taken part in countless BSI running events - from the Wizz Air Half Marathon through the Telekom Vivicitta to the Spar Marathon - but in the heat of the races (in the endless flow) I never stopped to think about what might be behind the scenes, who is behind the curtain.

What kind of community, what kind of people, with what stories and what "whys"?

How do they get tens of thousands of people nationwide moving, to relax and to connect?

Arriving Saturday evening at the Siófok event from Szekszárd, from the pleasant 35km Bodri Trail run, I landed straight into the "highlight of the evening": the extremely immersive talk by my athlete friend Donát Gyenes. With his incredible storytelling and unique presentation style, Donát "flew us all to Africa" - we could almost live through his experiences from his January training camp and trip to Kenya together with him. Listening to Donát, I felt as if I'd been transported to another world: to Eldoret, the sanctuary of the world's best long-distance runners.

Donát set the bar high with his Saturday evening account and the outlook he passed on to us: it says everything that the event's host and main organizer, István Lakatos, fighting back tears, thanked him for his talk, and for the fact that by sharing his story he also passed on his attitude to life - seen through the eyes of a 25-year-old with an exceptional mentality, a hardworking athlete who stands his ground both as a person and professionally, and who wants to do good for his fellow humans and the world.

Sunday morning I had to clear the bar Donát had set. (Of course, this isn't a competition, but among Friends/Brothers there's always a bit of unspoken rivalry, in the most positive sense of the word.) After the community run and breakfast on the shore of Lake Balaton, I "felt the pressure" that, with an audience of nearly 120 people - who had listened to Donát's account the night before with full engagement - I now had to meet their attention and emotional threshold.

I talked about the stories from my books "Run, Believe, Live" and my soon-to-be-released (in March) "Super Sapiens".

As I stood there in front of the audience during my talk and saw their interested gazes, my commitment toward my fellow sufferers and fellow athletes grew even stronger: to keep doing everything I can in the future to bring to as many people as possible the message that a long and healthy life, the joy of movement, the flow experience, change, growth, and healing are possible and attainable for all of us.

This is also the main message of my Super Sapiens book - complemented with the "hows", the scientifically sound facts, and my innermost personal thoughts, experiences, and stories.

At the end of my talk, scanning the sparkling, glowing, enthusiastic gazes, I thought that we are all on a journey. However much you may think, listening to my story, that I've found my path, that's not entirely true in that form: I'd rather say that I've found my direction, and I'm still searching for my path, like so many other fellow sufferers, fellow athletes, and fellow human beings.

One thing I'm sure of: this path is far more beautiful when we walk it together.

Deep, heartfelt thanks for every single moment I could spend with you this weekend - to race director Árpi Kocsis and main organizer István Lakatos for their heartfelt words before/after the talk, and to everyone we met, talked with, ran together with, and connected with.

This is the kind of Team, Community, People, and stories that stand behind BSI events"

#runbelieveLive

#supersapiens_book

#bsimozogjvelunk Andrea Dalmadi