Half Marathon Run in Afghanistan

“Here in the camp there are many of us who like running long distances, and as I knew that the Wizz Air Half Marathon race was going to be held in Budapest on 13th September, I asked who would like to »enter« it. Fifteen of us »lined up at the start«, some soldiers used treadmills and others set off to cover the distance on a pre-set route in the camp", Col. Tibor Talabos, lead advisor of the Afghan Border Police 806th Zone Headquarters (ABP 806th ZONE HQ), the organizer of the running race in Afghanistan told us. He added that in this way too, they wanted to popularize the Hungarian Defence Forces and to show that the Hungarian soldiers are able to give such a sports performance besides carrying out their duties in the foreign mission.

The competitors started at 8:00 a.m. local time, because it was not yet so hot then. Thus, due to the time difference of +2.5 hours, they had already finished the race when the starting pistol was fired in Budapest. “A friend of mine who participated in the Budapest race told me that before the start in Budapest, the entrants were informed over a loudspeaker that the soldiers of the Hungarian Defence Forces had already run the distance in Afghanistan", Col. Talabos told us.

PFC Dávid Ceglédi achieved the best result. Instead of a treadmill, he covered the 21km distance in a designated sector of the camp in 1 hour 37 minutes.

The colonel also told us that “running home" is also popular with the soldiers. This means that during their tour of duty, the Hungarian servicepersons try to run as many kilometers as the distance is between Budapest and Mazar-e Sharif. “Everybody who goes to the gym to run notes down his daily performance and we add up these results at the end. The distance is 4071.7 kilometers as the crow flies, and we have already covered two-thirds of it."