Run Winschoten

 Liesbeth Jansen : Race-director RUN Winschoten since 2003 Member of the council of the Royal Dutch Athletics Federation since 2004 Chair of the Running Sports committee of the Royal Dutch Athletics Federation since 2007 Director of Competitions of the IAU since 2008 Chair of the Technical Committee of the IAU since 2008 Hello, on September 12th, you’ll be organizing the RUN Winschoten event . Can you tell us where it is located? Winschoten is a little city in the north-eastern part of The Netherlands. Start and finish is on the street called Mr. D.U. Stikkerlaan close to the sportshall. Our event is a 100 km race and a 50 km race. Next to these solo races there will be a 10 × 10 km relay §staticmap(2036) How old is the race and why was it created in the first place? Edition 2009 is the 34th. What kind of route have you set up for the runners? How would you describe it? There is again a 10 km flat and traffic-free track. It leads through a part of the city of Winschoten How many runners do you expect on Saturday morning? What type of runners do you plan to attract? All races combined we expect about 3175 runners, most of them running inthe 10×10k relay race. 50 km about 75 starters 100 km about 100 starters Do you organize other races during the Week-End? If so, on what distances? Apart from the 50 and 100 km races, we organize a 1k run from the children (Lutje RUN) and a 10x 10km relay race. At that time of the year, what kind of weather can we expect? The average temperature at the beginning of September in the past 10 years is 17°C. The maximum temperature 22°C during daytime and minimum temperature 15°C at night time, rainfall 0.8mm, relative humidity 72%. The last 3 years the temperature was higher, between 23 and 27 degrees. The wind was comfortable. Humidity about 70%. During the last 4 years there was no rain. Have you planned festivities around the races? There is an ‘promotional village’ where sponsors can give information to runners and visitors. You also can buy products etc. There will be music and some attractions for children. Victory ceremonies outside. The marathon finished, what advice would you give a runner who has never been to Winschoten before? A good restaurant, a fancy sightseeing? The city is also known as “The city of Roses” because of it’s large Rose-garden with more than 350 kind of roses. Beside this, the town is also an important shopping and entertainment center for the whole region of East Groningen. In the neighborhood you will find some interesting places as well. A complete new residential area called “Blauwe Stad” (blue city) is under construction. In Nieuweschans you will find a Spa Resort. Fortress Bourtange is a fortified town (1742) in which time appears to have stood still. The city of Groningen, with “Het Groninger Museum” is just 35 km away. At Winschoten you will also find a lot of different restaurants. From McDonald to exclusive restaurants. In a single sentence, what would you tell the readers of 42k195 to make them register for the RUN Winschoten Marathon? The course consists of a 10 km traffic free and completely flat track. We hope this fast course will enable the runners to achieve excellent performances. The LOC can assure that they will do their utmost to make your stay in Winschoten as pleasant as possible. It is our true aim to turn this event into a memorable experience for all runners. Thank you Liesbeth .