A rainy Marathon 3150 marathon runners decided to run the 25th Anniversary SPAR Budapest International Marathon despite the rainy day! Runners started the race at the start pistol of the Hungarian President, Pal Schmitt. The drummers, the speaker and the cheering crowd set the atmosphere of the race.
Overall an all the distances (marathon, 30 km, relay for 3 and 5, minimarathon, fun run) there were 13 800 runners filling the streets of Budapest. Despite the weather it was a real running festival!
The 1300 foreign runners came from 50 countries from all over the world, the most international runners came from France, Italy, Great Britain, Finland and Germany.
The winner among the men was Erkolo Ashenafi (2:23:13), an Ethiopian runner living in Hungary, among the women a new course record was set by the Hungarian athlete Simona Staicu (2:37:47).
Congratulations to all the participants!
The next 26th SPAR Budapest International Marathon will be organised on 2 October 2011!