run for your life charlie brown

pre-race picture

this last weekend was quite an adventure for me. I ran in my first half-marathon. it was in Sarajevo of all places. Sarajevo is the capital of Bosnia & Herzegovina. I've been running for a couple of years, just to stay active and healthy. it's also my way to "recharge" my batteries (I'm thankful that my wife allows me the time to do this). my good friend Laci Németh asked me a while back if I'd join him in running the Sarajevo half-marathon. He's been to Sarajevo a few times, has friends there & I liked the idea so we began preparing. In April this year I came home from a run with extreme pain in my ankle. turns out that I broke my ankle. I was out for 8 weeks. I didn't think I would be able to do a half-marathon this year but I got back in to the swing of things over the summer and was pretty confident after August that I could do this.

after and exciting trip getting there (we took a wrong turn in Serbia) and a short night of sleep we began on our first ever half-marathon. The guys we were running with we both much faster and more experienced runners than us so Laci & I stuck together. Which was good cause we took turns pulling the other one on over the course of the race.

close to the finish line

we were expecting a flat course (cause that's what the race website said - "the course is fast and flat") they don't know what flat is. I live in one of the flattest places in Hungary and for me the most uphill I get is going over the bride to Újszeged. My GPS told us that there was about 350m (1,150ft.) climb!! so for me it wasn't so easy.

Hungarian pride

I was confident I could do the race because at the end of August I ran 21K here in Szeged in 2:07:37. People told me I'd shave 5-10 minutes off my time in a race because of the adrenaline. Well they were wrong. We finished the race in the official time of 1:55:52. that's almost 12 minutes better!!

just so you believe our time

as we crossed the finish line both Laci & I teared up cause for us this was a pretty major accomplishment. I was totally honored to run this race with him and look forward to many more, although I don't think we'll be shaving 12 minutes of this time anytime soon

the 4 brave runners

but I think the best part of this was meeting wonderful people who are living and serving there. 

so 1 down, hopefully many more to go