Debrecen4U
January 5, 2026
Expert Sees Debrecen Becoming a Key Player in the Marathon World
These days, a healthy lifestyle and regular exercise are no longer just a matter of individual choice, but also a community concern. At the University of Debrecen, more and more people are proving that, even alongside work, there is room for an active and health-conscious life.
Recent years have seen the launch and continuous development of the University of Debrecen’s Employee Physical Activity Program—an initiative that specifically addresses university employees. The latest episode of CampusTalk focused on how this program operates and what opportunities are available to university employees in everyday life. These topics were discussed by Zoltán Mag, Head of the DEAC Recreational Sports Division.
As a major university sports association, DEAC has a number of highly competitive sports divisions but, around four years ago, an idea arose to launch programs for employees and other members of the university community under the already existing Recreational Sports Division.
This ultimately became the University of Debrecen’s Employee Physical Activity Program, where organizational units compete with each other and engage in a “health battle” by collecting individual activity points.
University staff have followed the program with growing interest. “It was interesting to see how individual enthusiasm transformed into a sense of community,” Zoltán Mag emphasized. So far, nearly 1,700 people have joined the physical activity program, and the goal is to reach 2,000 participants, representing nearly 20 percent of the university’s workforce.
The activity program itself is based on individual forms of exercise: everyone does the sport they prefer and logs it. Organized by the Recreational Sports Division, employees can also take part in Campus Yoga on site after work. A recent initiative is chair yoga, which helps address problems caused by sedentary work by teaching a simple yet very effective technique. “With the help of a qualified yoga instructor, they are taught exercises that can be learned in half an hour and, even while seated, they can use these exercises to prevent or alleviate problems,” he said.
In addition, the division organizes various events, such as 24 or 48-hour physical activity challenges. Thanks to the activity program, a new Ultra Running Division has also been established by members who had been entering the same competitions and recognized each other but did not know that they were all university employees.
At the 48-hour challenge event, hundreds of employees engage in continuous physical activity over two days, taking turns. “Through physical activity, people get to know each other. Through our work, we only know one another superficially, to the extent required by our professional relationships. But when meeting through a leisure activity, colleagues become people,” he stressed.
Although it is difficult to fit exercise into daily routine, employees are becoming increasingly motivated to work out every day. Both small (under 100 people) and large (over 100 people) organizational units actively participate in the program: among the larger ones, the most successful so far have been the Faculty of Economics and Business, the University and National Library, and the Faculty of Engineering, while among the smaller ones the teams of the Rector’s Chancellery Cabinet, the Legal Directorate, and the Press Center stand out.
Six months ago, the Coordination Center for Employee Leisure and Health Programs (DOSZEKK) was established, as the program had reached such a scale that the university felt it would be beneficial to have a center coordinating these efforts. Moreover, according to Zoltán Mag, this opens up new perspectives, additional capacities, and allows new colleagues to join. As he put it, they aim to develop the existing programs to their maximum potential in the future and make use of untapped reserves. They also plan to involve new neutral participants and organize new programs based on demand.
Registration is already open for Debrecen Marathon 2026—the city’s first ever single-loop asphalt marathon, organized by DOSZEKK. More than one hundred people have already signed up for the marathon distance. “Debrecen will be put on the marathon map, joining cities such as London, New York, Boston, or Paris,” he explained, adding that the route has already been confirmed to pass through the city’s iconic and beautiful locations.
Source and photo credit: dehir.hu
