Not even this weekend's freezing weather deterred students and staff from Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences to take part in the 2018 Midwinter 'Marathon' of 8km on Sunday. Together with over 14 thousand other participants, they were joined this year by the chair of Wittenborg’s executive board, Peter Birdsall.

Almost everyone managed to complete the marathon in less than an hour.  Wittenborg’s senior advisor and quality manager Harry Maatjes, who is an experienced long distance runner and cyclist, crossed the line first with a time of 42:52, followed by Indonesian MSc student Janice Callista who clocked a time of 46:23.

Callista and Nadia Indradi were the only students who participated. Both are from Indonesia and doing a MSc in International Hospitality Management at Wittenborg. Explaining her reasons for participating Nadia said: “I wanted to prove to myself that I can do the impossible. Next time I will do 10 km. I definitely felt the bite of the cold in my legs and think it’s harder to run in cold than warmer conditions. The key is to keep moving so your body doesn’t cool off. I will definitely encourage other students to take part next year.”

Meanwhile Wittenborg runners, who represented lots of nationalities, were cheered on by fellow staff members, friends and family along the route. Luckily the rain that was predicted earlier last week did not arrive so runners were cold, but at least dry.

Members of staff who participated were Peter Birdsall (Chair of Executive Board), Karen Penninga (Member of the Executive Board), Harry Maatjes (Senior Advisor and Quality Manager), Rauf Abdul (Head School of Business), Lena van den Bosch (Marketing and Sales Officer), Yanti Setiawan (Admissions Officer) and Andreas Ooijer (Lecturer).

WUP 5/2/2018
by Anesca Smith

©WUAS Press