THE MAGNIFICENT MAGYAR

Stablemate Csenge Györgyi (34) T-squared a brutalist 17 minutes and 12 seconds off best at the Hawke’s Bay Marathon in Napier, New Zealand, with a sublime 3:45:41 timing.

Hungarian-born Györgyi was also well up the standings, placing 128^th/450 overall, 23^rd/172 women, and a terrific top 10 age cat spot (8^th/43).

But it wasn’t all rainbows and sprinkles down where the hobbits roam. Györgyi had a perfect start, in cool, 8℃ temperatures and overcast skies. But later on, the sun emerged, and with that pesky hole in the ozone layer, it was beating down on her with all its might.

The Stable News was straight on the blower to hear from the pizza-loving architect: 

“I started out a little too fast, and the dreaded hard part of the marathon came way too early—at the halfway point. The course is really exposed (no trees, no buildings, just the ocean and the mountains in the back), and the sun came out at around the 10km mark (and was really strong), so that must have played a part in making the run harder.

I had to slow down at 20km, which meant I was in the pain cave for 1.5 hours.

It was a struggle from there to the finish line, but I kept pushing through. I am really happy with the mental side of this run. Up until now, if I did not reach the A++ goal in a race, I just gave up. 

This time, I fought for every km of the run, and even though I think it was not my best performance this year, it was on that day.” 

Coach Stazza had this to say on Csenge’s courageous canter: 

“Epic stuff from our very own Eszter Pécsi … We’ll still need to work on keeping her cool for the first 18-20 miles, but to show true heart and not throw in the towel when it got tough shows she has the right stuff. Sok kicsi sokra megy!”