Next month, on the 10th and 11th of May, the 47th edition of the Batavierenrace will take place. Just like previous years, Synergy will also participate with a team. But what is it like to participate in the Batavierenrace? And more important, how do you prepare for it? In this article 3 participants of the Synergy team will explain their motivation and what they did to prepare themselves thus far.
The Batavierenrace is a yearly event, organized by and for students. It’s a relay race which starts in Nijmegen and ends in Enschede. Every team has 25 participants, who all run a part of the route to Enschede. After the race the biggest student party in Europe takes place on the campus of the University of Twente, because in the end all students love a good party.
The first participant of the Synergy team is Jordy. This is the first time he will participate in the race and he is going to run a distance of 7.9 kilometers. He chose to join the team, because he heard quite good stories from his friends about the Batavierenrace. He is quite sportive himself, so he didn’t need much preparation: “I already do all kinds of sports, like soccer, swimming and fitness. Therefore my stamina is quite good”. The only thing he did change, was going for a run every week instead of another cardio-like training. “I am quite sure that, for me, that is enough to be able to run my part of the race!”.
The second participant is Sander. For him it is also the first time and he will run 7.3 kilometers. This is the part where the runners leave from the sports center in Nijmegen and run towards Germany. For him the reason to join the team was to have a fun weekend with Synergy and also to have a good motivation to become a little bit healthier. But this has not completely worked out the way he wanted to. “I have to admit that I haven’t trained for it yet, but I will start with that somewhere this week... hopefully. I do have some condition because I’m in a soccer team! But I could have done some more, and I should have been drinking less...”. Well, don’t we all have that last thought sometimes. For the rest, he has no idea what the day will look like. So he hopes to hears something about it before the start. “By the way, do you have any tips for running shoes?”.
The third participant is Georginio. He is running the longest distance of the race, 10.7 kilometers. He likes this because with this distance, he can test his running skills even more. He participated in the race (with another team) 2 years ago, so this will be his second time. He is really looking forward to it. “The Batavierenrace is really a whole experience, not only running some miles. You go there, put up your tent, drink some beers and of course have a great party afterwards. Everyone is in a great vibe and that’s what I like most about the Batavierenrace”. He is also looking forward to meet some friends from other parts of the country, who are going to participate as well. His preparation started 2/3 months ago, starting with running 1 or 2 times in a week. This last couple of weeks he is pushing this towards 3 or 4 times a week, to be in the best shape. “As for drinking less, that didn’t go that well this week due to the Atlas Trip. But the day before I will not drink and of course not on the day itself, only after I’ve run my part. Otherwise it limits your performance and I take it very seriously in that regard”.
Like you could read, the Batavierenrace is for everyone. It’s a great way to meet more people and test your own limits. And dependent on the distance, your stamina and maybe also the liters of beer you consume every week, the preparation is doable. We wish all the runners of the Synergy team the best of luck and in the next article about the Batavierenrace we will talk about how the race went and how everyone experienced it.
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