During the past Pentecost the annual Roparun took place, where our well-respected colleague Jos Brouwer has been participating for the past years. The Roparun is a relay race of approximately 520 kilometers from Paris and 560 kilometers from Hamburg to Rotterdam, in which people work as a team to give a combined sports performance in order to raise money for people who suffer from cancer.

What is it?

The Roparun is a relay race of approximately 520 kilometers from Paris and 560 kilometers from Hamburg to Rotterdam, in which people work as a team to give a combined sports performance in order to raise money for people who suffer from cancer. You could also call it an adventure for life. This is also clear from the motto, which has been the same for many years: “Add life to the days, where often days can no longer be added to the life”. Almost everyone, me too, has lost someone suffering from cancer, or knows someone who is/was fighting to this awful disease. The first years of my participation I had to think a lot about my own family who suffered from it. Now my motivation has shifted to a much broader group of people who are confronted with cancer.

How does it work?

About 330 teams participate, starting from either Paris or Hamburg, running to Rotterdam. Our team split themselves in two sub teams consisting of 4 runners, 2 cyclists, driver, co-driver and physiotherapist. Every sub team has a shift of around 5 hours. Every runner, runs around 1 kilometer at a pace of approximately 11 km/hour. After 5 to 6 minutes, the next runner will take over. This way the runner can rest about 15 minutes before running again. After a distance of +- 60 kilometers the other sub team is on duty. The team that just ran, will drive to the next meeting point, eat a little bit, get some sleep (usually max 2.5 hours), and then it’s getting ready for shift again. This procedure repeats from Saturday noon till Monday around 15:00 hours at a 24 hour schedule.

My feelings about this year?

It was already the 3rd year for me to participate in this beautiful event. Two times I ran from Hamburg (Germany) to Rotterdam, this year the first time from Paris. The old Charles de Gaulle airport served as the starting point. With a lot of music and happiness, every 6 minutes a couple of teams started their experience. I knew the 50 hours would be going to be tough but also very rewarding. Running approximately 65 kilometers and cycling about 80 kilometers is not what I do every day. Of course I did train a lot by running around 3 times a week but The Netherlands is flat, so doing the hills was new to me. As it is a relay race you are taking the challenge as a team. Everyone in the team, irrespective of the assigned function, contributes to make the event a success. We were lucky by having good weather and almost no injuries. Only one of our cyclists got hit by sunstroke; we reorganized the functions in our team and went on. Then you see the real power of individuals acting as a team, supporting each other in difficult times. Also the spectators along the route helped a lot to cheer you up. Some villages like the Belgium Zele turned into a big Roparun party. Next to the joy we experienced, some very emotional moments took place. Like shaking hands of patients with cancer in front of the Daniel den Hoed medical center near the finish in Rotterdam. At that moment you forget the lack of sleep, the little pains you have and how tired you are. Your facing the people that you are doing this charity run for…

The financials

The race is a charity run. So the challenge is to raise as much money you can and keep the costs to a minimum. The foundation that organizes this event only has 1 paid employee, all other people are offering their services for free. Our team also has this minimalistic approach. Basically the only out of pocket cost is gasoline and rental of the little truck and minibuses. Every team member pays their own costs and takes his share in finding sponsors. I’m very delighted that Agium EPM, colleagues and many business relations financially supported me and my team. A big thank you!
In the past years the amount that was raised by this event (by all teams) exceeded 5 million euro. At the moment of writing this article the 2017 amount is not yet known, but I’m confident it will be around the same figure. A fantastic sum of money which will help a lot of patients.