Even before the Nijmegen Four Days Marches started last year, Diana Willart from Roosendaal was already in tears. Due to triple car trouble, she arrived one minute late when she picks up her starting ticket and she was disqualified. To prevent that, Diana left early Monday morning to get a well -deserved cross at the finish this year. “If I am not on time, I will never be on time,” she laughs.
The smiling Diana will stand in line a lot more relaxed for her starting ticket on Monday than last year. “I had left more than three hours in advance, while I normally take it for an hour and a half. I was in the traffic jam three times and just before Nijmegen my car broke,” she looks back.
When she arrived minutes in advance, she sprinted like crazy about the site. “At the counter they said they had already cleaned up the scanner. I hurried to the service counter, where a woman grabbed her watch and said I was one minute late. The laugh with which she said it was perhaps the worst.”
“I have filed another complaint.”
Diana was furious at the organization of the Nijmegen Four Days Marches, especially since people who were delayed by train received a starting ticket one hour later. “They thought that was force majeure,” says Diana. “I filed a complaint afterwards, but for every reason I gave it it was unjust, they had an answer.”
Door that she is, Diana decided to walk along. “I ran for myself and for fun. And I really wanted to be able to say that I had walked the fifty kilometers.” She didn’t get a cross at the finish, but on the way Diana could count on a lot of support from people on the side. “People sympathized with me and suddenly wanted to take a picture with me,” she laughs.
Yet she could not live up to her goal. Due to the heat, the Four Days Marches was shortened by ten kilometers the last day. This year Diana therefore has two objectives: coming on time and walking fifty kilometers for four days.
“I left the door this morning at half past nine to make sure that I am there before five o’clock,” she says. “I have checked my car well and pumped up the tires. If I am not on time, I will never be on time.”
“I forgot my passport.”
It turned out to be exciting on the way. “I had to make a detour, because I forgot my passport this weekend at a party in Limburg. I need it to register. I do have a copy, but I don’t want the risk that things will go wrong again.”
After a large detour via Limburg and a large file, Diana is at the check -in counter around two hours. “Where can I get a bus ticket from the campsite to the center?” She asks an employee. “I don’t want to take any risks that I will be late by hassle by car so I go by bus,” she laughs.
When the starting ticket and the bus card is received, a burden falls off her shoulders. “This feels good. I go for a cross at the finish, but I have first earned a beer.”
