Hi everyone: I’m Sergio Chaparro Arenas, an International Ambassador studying a PhD in Philosophy at the Faculty of Humanities of ELTE. Recently, I took part, together with other 1.244 runners and participants (children, men, women, adults, older people), in the VIII edition of the Marathon in the Hungarian city of Szeged. It was a memorable experience that I would like to share with you! Additionally, I would like to reflect on and draw some parallels between these two experiences.
Why do a PhD or run a full marathon? Well, I do not have a categorical or magical answer. I can only guess some clues and make a few comparative reflections. However, there is something I am convinced of. I strongly believe that, as common international students, we’re capable of achieving big things!
This blog note aims to motivate and inspire other members of our talented international community to take on new challenges in their academic studies and cultural integration at Eötvös Loránd University. At the same time, it also highlights the advantages of combining university life with running as a meaningful lifestyle and hobby.
Training for long challenges and peaks
A doctoral program at ELTE lasts longer than most bachelor’s or master’s degrees. In other words, it means four long years and eight semesters. At the same time, a full marathon means running forty-twopoint two kilometers (42.2 km). In brief, that means four years of study and around four hours of average running as a bipedal Homo sapiens. In practical and physical terms, once you are immersed in studying and exercising, space-time seems to run faster!
Do we deserve to do both? Why not! Studying for a doctorate and running a marathon are long challenges and major peaks that require autonomous time management, motivation, dedication, and different kinds of rewarding satisfaction.
In a full marathon, such as the one I experienced in Szeged on a sunny spring day (10 May 2026), previous training was essential. In my native Latin American country, Colombia, the idea of running a complete marathon began one year ago, in May. After arriving in Hungary, I started my first exercise routine on September 7, 2025, running from the ELTE Márton Áron Dormitory to the beautiful Chain Bridge. That meant running every week, at different paces, through different seasons, in different places with different people.
At the same time, applying for a doctorate also requires training. It means creating a reliable research project and, semester by semester, taking small steps and completing tasks to make it real. It also involves a daily routine of work and progress in the study room, ELTE libraries, or at home, through drafts and notes, deliveries, field work, readings of papers, books, and other sources.
Since February of last year, when I applied to ELTE through the Stipendium Hungaricum scholarship programme, I had a clear idea about pursuing a PhD on the contemporary crisis of civilization, which is my main passion. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, I have also started a more systematic and patient reading of two German philosophers and social scientists of crisis.
Sometimes, during this continuous training process, there are obstacles and relapses that make us think about abandoning this dual long challenge of pursuing both a marathon and a doctorate.
One of them is impatience and anxiety. Not seeing fast progress in your running or your research, comparing yourself with others, or being too perfectionist can create a feeling of moral guilt. Another obstacle is nihilism, that is, the feeling that what we are doing may be meaningless for our personal lives, for others, or for society. In our industrial societies, it is easy to reproduce these emotions and feel trapped by them. This is especially true for international students, when some activities are not directly related to academic studies or hobbies sometimes absorb part of your vital energy.
Training for long challenges and major peaks has taught me that progress can also mean “one step forward, two steps back”. Learning to slow down, rest, and recover your body is also part of the training process. Most importantly, knowledge and health can have a huge positive impact on both your present and future life. They reflect social needs in contemporary societies, while also contributing to adultpersonal life, self-care, community relationships, and professional aspirations.
Doing a PhD and running a marathon also teaches you that, even if you have a supervisor, colleague, personal coach and therapist, colleague or a teacher tutor, you still need enough resilience and inner strength to become an autonomous human being capable of facing many difficulties along the long way.
Contrary to common stereotypes about the “nerdy PhD student” or the “freak runner”, you are not a solitary wolf. That is only a metaphysical myth of modernity. As the famous British football anthem says, “you’ll never walk alone”.
For example, when I ran the Szeged Marathon together with another ELTE doctoral student, my Iranian friend Saeed, who studies Environmental Science. On that memorable sunny day, Hungarian citizens and foreigners were running with their family members, friends and couples. You can also find running clubs in Budapest and meet other students at the ELTE Gym and common areas such as the backyard and social events. The same happens in the academic process, where classmates and fellow ELTE students are always beside you, even sometimes it seems invisible.
To sum up, both long challenges and major peaks — pursuing a PhD and participating in a full marathon — are personal paths of health and professional development. At the same time, they are also forms of collective support, social interaction, inspiration and concrete contribution, and pride for yourself, your beloved family and friends, your country, and the wellbeing of crossnational communities.
Resisting and crossing the finish line
There are decisive moments that summarize what it means to run a full marathon or pursue a PhD. In the first case, it is clearly the day of the race, which condenses months or even years of training. In the second case, I would say it is the moment when you finish your thesis dissertation, your own creature creation, and finally reach the long-awaited Graduation Day ceremony.
Other intermediate tasks also help during the training process. In running, these include participating in half-marathons or less demanding races. In my trajectory in this country, I have already run two half-marathons in Budapest: the 40th Budapest Marathon Festival on 12 October 2025 and the 41st Vivicittá Spring Half Marathon in 2026.
In the case of a PhD, the intermediate tasks include preparing for exam periods and deliveries, participating in academic conferences, writing papers, taking the compulsory midterm exam in the fourthsemester, and attending workshops and seminars where you can present the progress of your thesis.
My academic and cultural experience in Budapest and Szeged has shown me that imagining yourself crossing the finish line is part of the strategic prospective thinking. It is useful not only for designing a feasible strategy, but also for keeping the flame of motivation alive during a long path that is far from being a “path of roses” and is instead full of relapses and zigzags.
I must confess that, before the Szeged full marathon, I was not in perfect condition because of an injury in my left calf. During the whole week before the race, I had to use diclofenac patches, a small bandage, pain relief pills, and cooling cream on the affected area. Sometimes we push our bodies too much through sports hobbies and overload our minds with university studies. This is also part of the learning curve as a freshman in a foreign country.
In my case, a few weeks before Szeged, I ran by my own two informal 21-kilometer training sessions on consecutive days, Saturday and Sunday, from the ELTE Márton Áron Dormitory to the National Athletics Centre (Gyula Zsivótzky Athletic Stadium). In addition, on 5 May, together with three other international students and Sai, an International Ambassador from Computer Science, we participatedin the 5K ELTE Fun Run at the Faculty of Science, Lágymányosi Campus. Later, on 8 May, the nice and friendly short ELTE ambassadors’ trip to the small town of Szentendre, its museums, collective lunch and beach landscape, also helped me during the healing process.
Despite that minor relapse, I was finally able to finish the 42K marathon in Szeged and cross the line! As a reward, we received a symbolic warrior medal shaped like a half Roman soldier and half runner. In an analogous way, I also hope to overcome the academic obstacles of university life and successfully finish my PhD at ELTE.
My experience of running and pursuing a doctorate has taught me that we must manage our physical and mental strength wisely. Avoiding overload and excessive pressure during both the training and studying process is essential. Giving yourself time to rest, saving your energy, temporary disconnect and constantly redesigning realistic and flexible tactics for each 10 kilometres of running pace and each two semesters of doctoral studies are indispensable practices.
My simple lesson is this: doing a PhD and running a marathon teaches you the wisdom of resisting, healing provisionally, and continuing with the goal of crossing the finish line. This remains true regardless of achieving a personal record (PR), standing on the podium, winning a Nobel Prize, breaking a Guinness Record, or obtaining a summa cum laude distinction for your dissertation. Simplyfinishing such a long path is itself a victory! For being a beginner and being injured, I did well: 50th final position from total 138 marathonists, 4 hours with 22 minutes and 37 secs.
In a pragmatic sense, by running a full marathon or pursuing a doctorate, you realize that the most important thing is not the position, recognition, or merits that you obtain. What truly matters is living themoment, crossing the finish line, and growing in your personal and professional life while continuing to search for new peaks and projects.
Closing reflections
As I’m wrapping up my first academic year at the public university of ELTE, I would like to close up with an informal philosophical reflection.
Today, many people in contemporary societies feel uncertain about their future and struggle to build a stable and meaningful project of life. Even in marathons or doctoral degrees, there are often pressuresfrom the academy industry and cultural industry.
At the same time, social media visibility, job insecurity, unfair competition, mental health, and the culture of productivity have become common parts of everyday life.
Being aware of this, in this humble reflection I have focused on the progressive side of the journey through my doctoral studies at ELTE in Budapest and my experience of running a marathon in Szeged, Hungary.
In simple words, doing a professional doctorate and practicing running as a hobby can become a way to avoid sedentary lifestyles, empty forms of consumption, and anti-intellectual attitudes that are increasingly present in today’s world.
Beyond ephemeral medals, diplomas, or prestigious titles, as mortal human beings, I believe that pursuing a PhD and running a full marathon can provide valuable life experiences and memorable moments through long challenges, peaks, and resilience. After all, moving and learning have been part of the historical progress of humankind. The new missions and the historical possibility of a second age of space exploration toward our natural satellite, the Moon, and the cosmos, remind us of that spirit.
To conclude: even if you don’t become rich or famous, the challenge of pursuing a PhD or running a marathon teaches you that cultivating your intelligence and your health may be one of the gifts of loveand common care that you can give both to yourself and to other human beings.
