About the Batavierenrace
On the 24th of April 2010, the starting shot of the 38th edition of the Batavierenrace, held in the Netherlands, will sound. It is a relay race over 177 km from Nijmegen to Enschede, divided into 25 stages (17 men's stages and 8 women's stages) varying from 3.3 km to 11.2 km. More than 300 teams (which means more than 7,500 students) participate in this race. This number of participants gave us a mention in the Guinness Book of Records. What's unique about this race is the mixture of a competitive as well as a social event. At midnight on the 23th of April, the race starts and the first runners will then dive into the night for their heroic battle against the elements and the temptations of a warm bed. This is the beginning of 18 hours of sportsmanship, which means you arrive in Enschede the 24th of April. Afterwards, the biggest student party in the Netherlands takes place, with over 12,000 visitors! In brief, a nice opportunity to be out with your team for a few days and definitely a great experience!
After a festal opening, the race starts at midnight near the University Sports Centre of Nijmegen. A unique feature of the the Batavierenrace is that part of the race takes place during the night.
To avoid overtaxing the route, and to have a good registration of stage times, the start takes place in six different start groups. Besides this there are restarts, to make sure the whole field of runners does not stretch out too far. These restarts take place in Dinxperlo, Barchem, and Enschede (Old Market).
The runners wear a slipover which functions as a baton. It also contains a chip, which registers the stage times. Every runner is accompanied by a teammate by bike for navigation, safety and moral support; because besides crowded relay points, the Batavierenrace has lonely fighting runners on windy country roads in the middle of nowhere as well.
History
In 1972, a couple of students from Nijmegen came back from the SOLA relay run in Sweden with so much enthousiasm, that they became determined to organise a similar event in the Netherlands. These inspired academics chose the route of the Batavians, who sailed down the Rhine 50 years before Christ, as the basis of their running course from Nijmegen to Rotterdam. The Batavierenrace ows its name to this first race in 1973, but because of infrastructural problems the route was later (from 1974 onwards) redirected towards Enschede. Except for a few changes, the route has remained the same since 1974. Since the first race, the total number of participants has increased from 575 to almost 8000 last year.
