“For the time being, this is my last marathon”, stammered a tired Johan Visschers just after he had completed his hundredth marathon.
The 67-year-old Visschers from Elsloo has run marathons all over the world. He ran his first in 1998 in Eindhoven. Then he became infected with the ‘runner’s virus’.
Presence of family and friends
Vacations were invariably combined with participation in a marathon race. However, the athlete ran the hundredth marathon close to home: in Stein. “The idea had been going on for a while to let Visschers run his hundredth here in Stein. He has added two more and because of this he can reach that special milestone here in the presence of family and friends,” explains race organizer Han Frenken.
100 Marathon Club Netherlands
With the completion of his hundredth marathon, Visschers joins the list of the 100 Marathon Club Netherlands. In Limburg there are no more than twelve runners who have succeeded. “I used to try to run under three and a half hours. Nowadays I am happy if I can complete the 42 kilometers in under five hours,” says Visschers. He notices that it is becoming increasingly difficult to walk the magical distance. “It seems that age is starting to get to me a bit. But I’ll keep running, maybe I should switch to half marathons.”
Steinerbos
In addition to running marathons himself, Visschers is also involved as webmaster in the organization of the Ultraloop in Stein. For this year’s edition, the organization had replaced the six-hour run with a number of distance races, including the ten kilometers, the half marathon and the full marathon. The course was traditionally set out in and around the Steinerbos.