Course record in under seven hours: Máté Vásárhelyi at the Piros 85

On 7 November 2026 Máté Vásárhelyi won the Piros 85 trail ultra and set a new course record. He covered the 84.1 km course through the Pilis and the Buda Hills in 6:39:06 (4:45/km average pace). He is the first runner ever to finish this race in under seven hours. He improved the previous record – Patrik Milata's 7:14:40 from 2019 – by 35 minutes.

Cold start, patient opening

It was a freezing morning: thick frost covered the grass on the Sikáros meadow, and the ground was frozen in the shaded sections. Máté deliberately started conservatively and ran for roughly two hours to Dömös. In the first kilometres Csaba Csombók and Marcell Klucsár were close to him, but Máté stuck to his own plan throughout. From Dömös Patrik Juhász accompanied him for 24 kilometres, and from Szépjuhászné Botond Sági, with whom he crossed the finish line.

The hard section and the seven-hour goal

At 45 kilometres he still felt fresh, yet he didn't speed up, because he knew the hardest part was still ahead. Fatigue set in between 53 and 58 kilometres, and he walked part of the climb towards Nagy-Szénás. The original six-and-a-half-hour plan slipped away here, but he kept the sub-seven-hour target in mind the whole time and worked out the pace he needed. The last 4.3 km were mostly downhill, and from there the course record was his.

How Máté fueled

After the race Máté summed it up: the keys were fueling, a more relaxed start and music.

• Perpetuem – his main energy source. He drank about half a litre of it by Dömös; later he topped up from drinks prepared in advance at the aid stations.
• Endurolytes – 2 capsules by Dömös, then every hour. In the cold weather he needed less fluid, but his electrolyte intake stayed regular throughout.
• Hammer Gel – he took his first and only gel (chocolate) in the last 14 km, for the final push.

Perpetuem is designed for long, multi-hour efforts: besides carbohydrates it also contains protein and fat, so on ultra distances it provides steadier energy than sugar-only fueling. Máté's race shows that an 84 km trail race can be completed with little but well-timed fueling.

What's next?

The Piros 85 was Máté's longest race so far. This year he has already won the SPAR Budapest Marathon (2:24:01), and he also holds the Hungarian 50 km record (2:55:25, Szőlőskör Hammer 50K). His next big goal is a sub-2:20 marathon.

Congratulations, Máté!

Sportime Magazin also reported on this race (in Hungarian): Vásárhelyi Máté történelmet írt a Piros 85-ön.