Vivicitta Half Marathon 2026 | I run, therefore I live

In the hours before the Vivicitta half marathon, during the early morning shake-out jog, I felt no strength in my legs – I was just dragging myself along.

"Well, I've never felt like this before a race – let's see what comes of it!" – that's how I pulled myself together during the pre-start warm-up on the Danube bank, near Bem Square.

In the middle of dynamic stretching it occurred to me that a decade ago this was my baseline state: weakness, fatigue, headaches, nausea, suffering. Back then I wasn't heading to a race at dawn – I was preparing for the Oncology Institute. Memories flashed back of what I had to do to recover. I shed a few tears during my Bem Square warm-up, and a quarter of an hour before the 9 o'clock start I could already hear the announcer from the direction of Margaret Bridge and the Musical Fountain, telling runners to take their places in the start zone, because soon a few thousand of us would set off onto the embankment.

A few stride-outs from Bem Square to Margaret Island, then minutes before the start I managed to get into the start zone, weaving through thousands of half marathon runners and "cheekily" making my way into the front rows.

The next 74-odd minutes are a blank: I almost only remember crossing the finish line. Long-distance running has this mind-altering effect. Is this what existence in the timeless eternal present feels like?

Although the time of the run itself fell away, the experience lasts forever. After finishing we wandered for hours on the sunlit Margaret Island, constantly bumping into running friends in the crowd of thousands. The community experience of such running events is just as important to me as the sporting experience itself. That's why I'm grateful for running, and why – ten years after those events – I celebrate healing, health and life itself through running.

And that's why I proudly represent and wear Kiprun running gear with the support of Decathlon Hungary, because as their slogan goes: "More runs. More life."

That's also why my coach friend László Lovász and I named my training plan the "longevity marathon project". In the Kiprun spirit, beyond kilometres I also collect experiences and healthy years of life.

Every day and every training session is a gift, the race itself is the reward, and every kilometre run, every half marathon or marathon is a comeback against cancer. The most beautiful and fairest revenge I can imagine – one that doesn't come from anger, rage and unprocessed trauma, but from struggle, the will to live and love: the love of life.

I run, therefore I live. And in the end: more runs, more life.

Thank you to Decathlon Hungary and Juli for being partners in this.