Maastrichts Mooiste 2008: Racing for health and habitats
It’s no wonder Patrick Delait knew exactly how to hold the trophy he won at the Maastrichts Mooiste on 15 June.
Delait, who finished the 15 kilometre race around the oldest city in the Netherlands in 51 minutes and 18 seconds, is a sportswriter for the Dagblad De Limburger. He spends most of his time covering cycling.
And when he’s not around the winners’ circle for work, Delait gets there on his own. The 38-year-old amateur runner won a half marathon a week prior to the Maastrichts Mooiste, in his native Belgium. He also placed fourth overall in the MaasMarathon, a scenic loop between Visé and Maastricht, in May, 2008. A month prior he finished sixth in his age group at the Marathon Rotterdam.
“I’m happy with my result… but this was just a bit of a joke today,” he said good naturedly in Maastricht. “I will use this distance for marathon preparation.”
Delait’s victory was an improvement from his showing at last year’s event, at which he came in fourth.
Geertje Thuijls won the women’s event on her first try, though. She cruised around the 15-metre track in 1 hour and 1:40 minutes. The 28-year-old is a Ph.D. student at the University of Maastricht, studying surgery. She has already earned a degree in medicine.
“I really liked it,” Thuijls said. She had the benefit of being on her home turf, also, living about a block from the starting point on Avenue Céramique. “It was a hard track, the hills made it hard.”
The 15k route took the 2,000 or so runners who participated through the old city of Maastricht and into the hills of St. Pietersberg. There were 10 small, Carnival-style bands playing – completely voluntarily - along the route to cheer along participants, along with many supporters.
Although the 15k headlined the day’s events, Maastrichts Mooiste extends beyond a single race. The event has evolved over the five years of its existence into a five-day fitness extravaganza. Next year may see the addition of a sixth day, organisers say. Or the event might become biannual.
About 9,000 people participated in this year’s events.
Healthier living
Gerrino Mulder, who founded the event in 2004, says he started it as a structured initiative toward healthier living in South Limburg.
“The event is not the goal, healthy living is the goal,” Mulder says.
To reach such an invisible finish line, Mulder also started a Limburg franchise of Start to Run, a national programme to help inexperienced people begin to run.
Every six months, Mulder said, about 500 people who have little history with running join for group training over a period of three months. Many of them run in the 5k race at Maastrichts Mooiste.
About 80 percent of participants in Start to Run are still going six months after the programme ends.
“Four years ago everyone was looking at you as if you were crazy if you were running in the city,” Mulder said. “Now you go through the park and on the mountain now it’s very normal, you see just a lot of people running.”
The 2008 edition of Maastrichts Mooiste started a week prior to the 15k and 5k races, with a day of outdoor, active activities for about 125 physically disabled people. That initiative was new this year, Mulder said.
“I’d like that to grow to one of the biggest events for physically disabled people in the Netherlands. That was the most special part of our whole event. Because we had this 5-year anniversary we wanted to do something for these people.”
The next day about 2,000 people participated in a local hiking activity. A sports market, for athletic clubs and trainers to demonstrate, attracted about 10,000 visitors.
The Friday night leading up to the 15 and 5k races, a small-sided football tournament for students was held on the Plein 1992, the site of Sunday’s finish line.
That square didn’t clear out until nearly dark on Sunday afternoon, but remained crowded – despite afternoon rain – with children and their parents.
Save the Polar Bear
For the fourth year, 100 percent of the proceeds the children’s portion of Maastrichts Mooiste benefited the World Wildlife Fund. Mulder said about EUR 8,000 was raised. Each child paid EUR 3.50 to enjoy a children’s race, jungle gyms, face painting, jump roping and more.
Wim Teernstra, a volunteer for WWF, spends three months out of the year visiting Maastricht’s 25 elementary, or primary, schools. He teaches the children about climate change and other man-made imbalances threatening wildlife.
This year’s lessons have focused on the polar bear.
Teernstra speaks passionately about the perilous situation facing polar bears and other species. He says it’s important for children to know environmental problems are not their fault, but they can be educated.
“Adults in Maastricht, they are isolated and maybe they don’t care,” Teernstra said. “But the bambinos, they know that when it comes to the polar bear, it’s thumbs down.”
He said the proceeds raised Sunday will benefit the polar bear and its threatened habitat in the North Pole. A large polar bear decorated the Plein 1992 on Sunday.
By Kathlyn Clore
EJC Associate Editor
Kathlyn Clore is an American journalist. Prior to joining the European Journalism Centre in July 2007, she worked as a sports writer. She graduated from the University of Missouri in 2005.
Maastrichts Mooiste 2008 by the numbers:
600: Volunteers
3,000-4,000: Bananas, cut in half
3,000-4,000: Apples, cut up
3,000: Vlaai (Limburg pie)
80,000: Cups
200: Musicians
