Budapest 10k – 08/10/2022
When Josh Brighty & Emily Beavis told us they had entered the Budapest Marathon in Hungary, Keith & I decided to make the trip to support them, we’d never been to Budapest before and there happened to be a 10k race on the Saturday, so naturally we signed up to run this while we were there!
We had been told that Budapest was a lovely city & were not disappointed, with many beautiful buildings and the Danube river running between the two halves of the city, Buda and Pest.
(Unfortunately Keith realised when we landed that he had forgotten to pack his running shorts so we had to go shopping as soon as we arrived!)
The 10k course was fairly flat, starting at the University, running out alongside the river before turning slightly inland and then back along the embankment. The weather was perfect, bright and sunny but not too warm at the 9am start, with a nice gentle breeze. There were various pacers available on the route and the 2027 finishers were aware that if they didn’t complete the course in the cut off time of 1hr 30 they would get scooped up by the sweep bus!
This was not a problem for Keith Brighty, who was 5th in his age group, first in for his club and in fact 3rd for Great Britain 😂with a very respectable time of 45:58. I had to dig deep in the second half of my race to finish in 49:34 with a 5 second pb, somehow managing to come first in my age group!
Then it was time for the main event, the 37th Budapest Marathon.
Unfortunately Josh had to withdraw due to injury, and they had both also fallen victim to Covid only a few weeks earlier so Emily wasn’t sure how she would fare over the 26.2miles. She needn’t have worried however, she ran a brilliant race, again starting at the University and running over various bridges crossing the Danube and along either side of the river and even around Margaret Island in the middle of the Danube. Josh, Keith and I decided to hire bikes and cycled along the route to support her, at times struggling to keep up with her whilst avoiding the spectators straying onto the cycle paths, not to mention the trams!
It was a warm, sunny day, around 19 degrees by midday but after training through the summer heatwave back in the UK this was no problem for Emily. She finished in a fantastic time of 4:02:22 with a brilliant pb, and in a field of over 2000 runners was the 160th female and the 6th British lady, very well done Emily! 👏👏
There were also various other running events including a marathon relay and 5k race if any club members fancied entering next year, all very well organised, we would thoroughly recommend a trip to Budapest.
| Name | Time | PB | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keith Brighty | 45:58 | Silver | |
| Ruth Gainsford | 49:34 | Yes and 1st in Age Category! | Diamond |