On 12th of October 2025, two things happened at different hours, because the time zone. Both in Romania, and in US, the national marathon record was beaten. The similarities stop here, though, because the difference between Bucharest Marathon and Chicago Marathon are exactly like the ones between the cities, and even the two countries altogether. Context: Nicolae Soare, after a perfect race, clocked 2:11:58, 32 seconds better than the previous long standing record, while Conner Mantz stopped the watch at 2:04:43, crushing a record which rested since 2002 – it is truth that an American runner run 2:04:58 the Boston Marathon, but it not being a loop, it doesn’t count as national record. Now, that is the thing, Soare broke a record standing since… 1978!

Good marathon record, but it might stand still for some more decades

It is a shame that Romania could produce nothing this period, but the system is as such developed, that even this achievement is amazing. I am not trying to put any merits off Soare, because I am sure this record won’t be chopped by any other Romanian runner during our lifetime – maybe slightly by him, and / or Alex Corneschi, but that’s all – the point is that, if you participate at a major marathon, the 2:11:58 might not be good enough for top 50, in some cases. It sounds bad, but I’ve explained a bit how sports is working in Romania, exactly here. Now, this is not a problem in itself, but the way in which the population relates to sports in general. Mass sports in Romania is almost nil, even if we have 378,000 registered sportsmen and women :), but this topic is just a consequence of the general behavior of a nation with not a very high average IQ :(.

“How many degrees from the idiot?”

The marathon should be a reason to celebrate many things, but since many boulevards of Bucharest are (thankfully!) closed, things brought to surface are from another level of intelligence. I felt inspired here, by Mike Prince’s “how many degrees from the idiot?”, and every time a city runs happen in Romania, the multitude of idiots are washed to the surface and, surprisingly, they can speak.

• “Why don’t they go running in parks?”
• “Why don’t they go running in the mountains?”
• “Why do we need to block the traffic?”
• “It is unacceptable to have the traffic blocked!”
• “We have things to do, we can’t be blocked by a fucking run!”

Just 1,285 people at the marathon…

And on, and on, and on! Replicas made by people situated on the left side of the 86.88 IQ benchmark. How could it be different? I was infuriated, especially because I saw these written by self-called journalists or public figures – every unemployed person can become easily as such, at least in self imagination – because they influence a lot of people, and, in the end, increase a wave of swear words from low intelligence persons. The luck is that us, the ones for this kind of events, having a far better wording luggage, can express ourselves better, and swipe many illogic writings, about which nobody would care anyway… The tragedy doesn’t stand in this primitive “communication”, but in the fact that the behavior is propagated at all levels. To be more specific, Bucharest Marathon had, in 2025, allegedly, 12.000 participants to all events. But for the main event, the marathon, you could count… 1,285 people. Lower than in 2024, but more than in 2023, when less than 800 participated.

Oslo Marathon, again, 3.5 times more

How does this look to you? I have made a parallel between Bucharest Marathon and Oslo Marathon in 2024, after attended the last. The difference between people’s approach towards sports, running in this case, in the two countries, is unimaginable different. And I am using this comparison, because Oslo Marathon doesn’t have an exposure much different than the one in Bucharest. It is not the kind of marathon, like Valencia, Istanbul, or Amsterdam – let’s not mention Berlin, London, Paris – where thousands, maybe ten of thousands of people from all over the world want to come and run here. Regardless, the main event gathered, in 2025, 4,185 people! 3.5 more than in Bucharest! In 2024, there were 4,018. And most people really show up prepared for the marathon. This is a completely different story, though… The point here is that we can’t get prepared to move our legs, or to lose weight – Romania is leading at obesity in Europe! – if we can’t open our minds first.

A good event, but still thin

While many big European cities remove cars from their streets “portfolio”, Romania is adding more and more and more, preferably highly polluting cars. The air in Bucharest becomes unbreathable, but we can understand why, when we see the approach of morons who are bothered by a simple running event, which promotes solely health and joy. And not only in Bucharest. One week prior Bucharest Marathon, I was at another running event in Brasov, but the traffic was merely closed because “we can’t do that, is impossible. Drivers are already irritated”. What? So I need to run among exhaust smoke, because some guys can’t leave their cars behind for a couple of hours. Good deal, what can I say? The lack of courage to promote traffic shutting will never help in educating our nation to do things as they should be done. To live healthier, more logic. Bucharest Marathon, in spite of a lot of efforts, remains one of the “thinnest” running event in a capital city in Europe. And not mainly because of the organizers, but because of the mindset of the population.

Why I can’t see this traffic reluctance in any other place?

I’ve been to Berlin, Prague, Budapest, Oslo, as said, Valencia, Chamonix, Courmayeur, Banska Bystrica, Marathon – Athens, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Corte, Machico, Monte (Funchal) and so on, and in none of this place I’ve experienced any major friction from the traffic side. It is truth that I didn’t read the social media to identify angry people, but can you contradict my feeling that people were not bothered by running events? You can’t because I was there, so I don’t need my opinion to be validated by somebody else. 🙂 In the end, this is why those events went global, forever sought by people all over the world. You don’t have there problems closing the traffic where and when is needed. People understand things different, live life different, and they are not in a hurry to… By the way, why are people in Romania always in a hurry, and towards where? Because… if we kept the pace of our nation’s results to our so called “rush”, for sure we have topped Europe at many chapters… Few speak of this, though, and that upsets me most.

Cornel Râpă ran the marathon in 2:58:10!

Like the fact that, as I write, on 15th of October 2025, there was zero articles in our very “rich” in low content sports press about Cornel Râpă, who run the marathon below 2:59. To run a marathon in under three hours is indeed an achievement, especially if you don’t train many years for it. At 35 years, Cornel is still an active football player, even he doesn’t have a team. He picked up running volume quite recently, but his first marathon shows he has a lot of potential. The only known football player who achieved this, is Arjen Robben. Approximative same time, but he made it from the second attempt, as initially ran 3:13:40. Well, Râpă is not at Robben’s fame, but he was still a national team right back. Who understands what he done? Almost nobody. This is the level of Romanian press. The level or Romanian mindset and we see the results day to day, unfortunately…