RunT!lt July 20
A few days ago, we were at Nike for a sponsorship meeting, during which interesting information emerged about numbers, money, people, and generally about whether Class FM is the biggest sh*t media outlet in the country with advertising value, or if Vadon Jani's role and his right to exist in the media are severely overrated. It happened that they wanted to promote the 25th Nike half-marathon with Mr. Vadon, the essence of which would have been a joint running series.
Nike didn't mess around, so they pumped a few million forints into the project, which the aforementioned Class FM was happiest about, as this money was spent on advertising time at this radio station. I don't understand on what basis and how some people can make a living in the Hungarian media world when they are neither funny nor interesting, and in some cases, they are incredibly irritating assholes. Just think of Lajos Boross, Ferenc Rákóczi, or Tivadar Farkasházy. I am convinced that these three people together haven't had three jokes in the last 25 years, which is awkward because that would be their job. This Vadon kid is similar; there's nothing wrong with him, he's just simply boring, but he always reminds me of Balázs's sidekick. But let's get back to the Nike run because this will be an instructive little story...
The event was promoted for several weeks, supported by millions of forints on a nationwide radio station, which, needless to say, had its effect. The event concluded with excellent results and even greater success. The result couldn't have been otherwise, given a national radio station and the global brand of Nike. If I wanted to quantify the success, then at the Nike run organized by János Vadon, exactly 14 people showed up. Hearing this, I imagined that among these 14 people were the organizers and the hostess girls, and at this point, I burst out laughing in the middle of the meeting. That's how it is, and then it immediately occurred to me that if only 14 people showed up at a professionally organized Nike run after significant promotion, then will I really be alone with my friend at the Runtilt? I bet a girl that there wouldn't be more than 10 of us, to which she said there would definitely be 20, let's bet. A CAJG!!! I immediately shouted the bet, "just in case" of course, and then we finally settled on a bottle of booze, so if there are more than 20 of us, I'll lose a Bacardi. Maybe I should also pour 5 million into that advertising pit called Class FM so that no one comes to the island and I win the booze. The question is, therefore, is there in Hungary 200,000+1 free democrats... 14+1 LifeT!lt readers who will come on July 20th so that I can surpass the multi-million run of János of Danubius Class FM? Probably not, so I'd rather move on to the run itself.
Lately, I often run with girls I personally coach. Their first training session is mandatory with me, partly to confront them with their current condition. Girls tend to live in a dream world, thinking they're fit after two consecutive runs. This delusion isn't new; these misconceptions are also present in women's everyday lives. It's a self-deceptive system they successfully apply to themselves in all other areas of life. Most often, this reflex is found in relationships and the "I am satisfied with my life" mentality, but as I've noticed, this phenomenon of deluding oneself is very much true regarding their fitness levels too. There was a girl who played handball competitively and asked for help with her conditioning, then wanted to show me what she was capable of during the run. She ran the first 2 km at full pace, then when I told her to come with me from then on, after 500 meters, she almost fell into the Danube because she couldn't breathe. Then there was another who asked why I only wanted to run 5km with her when she usually runs eight, and after that, we had to stop the training halfway because her head was throbbing so much from the exertion. And then my personal favorites are the girls who write blogs about their workouts under the name ladycamp. They publish their 7-8-10 km runs 3-4 times a week, and incidentally, they are preparing for half-marathons. I'm not kidding or exaggerating. One girl gave up after one and a half!!!! kilometers, the other lasted 1 km longer. Ladycamp, damn it, but all this after one of the girls had previously talked trash to me and about my workouts... I said, "Come on, star, let's run." Our training was followed by the next post:
"I am weak and that's it, I know it, it has been confirmed. Bence is in much better shape than me, respect to him and belated apologies for my nagging, I would never be able to pay so much attention to when, what, and how much I eat, how much I move, nor do I want to. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement, and I know that my already not high reputation has plummeted in your eyes."
You can say anything. You can also make promises to a certain extent, and even mislead yourself, but if you were to test just once what you are truly capable of, or how much the world you have built around yourself actually exists, then I think many people here would have a really big fall from a great height. The amazing thing about training is that you can't market your way out of the problem, there are no arguments and ideological systems based on fiction, but there is the path, your body, and you yourself. You start and you go. You achieve as much as you can achieve with muscle and will. If you stop before the goal, then that's all you are and there can be no excuses that it's hot, or the circumstances, or too much work, my side hurts, or screw it. You stopped, you failed. A 16-year-old girl with cancer once ran the 42 kilometers of the New York Marathon, because she wanted to and this was how she expressed her fight against her illness. It's true that her parents supported her in the last few kilometers, but she did it and didn't make excuses, and it wasn't about 5 f*cking kilometers, but 42, while terminally ill. Do you consider yourself fit and think you're good? Come run with me, then we'll see how much you'll show off at the finish line.
Now that I've discouraged everyone from Wednesday's run, let's get to the event itself. 1 lap is 5350 meters if I want to summarize it very briefly, but there will be a little more to it than that. The Nike running project is not successful because Nike doesn't put the essence into things. They don't do it from the heart, but they built a PR castle with money, behind which there is no social organization or sympathy whatsoever. LifeT!lt was built from scratch, and apart from the 25,000 forints (+ VAT, obviously) conversion cost of the blog, there is not a single forint in it. Yet the blog was able to become successful because it has that extra something behind it that cannot be bought with money.
This won't just be about meeting at the fountain, starting to run, then whoever reaches the finish line reaches it, and we go home to eat bacon. There will be groups according to fitness levels, and by helping each other, everyone will be able to run as much and at whatever pace they can. The groups will also function as teams, meaning there will be running together and you won't be able to leave each other behind. Whoever stops, stops, but they must complete the distance by walking to the finish line. Both the start and the finish will be at the fountain at Margaret Bridge; after the run, a small chat will begin, in other words, whoever can, bring a grill and charcoal.
