Do you know exactly how many streets Eindhoven has? Maron Janssen (22) from Waalre does. He saw all 2,756 of them while running around town. His mission was to color the entire map of Eindhoven on the running app Strava. On Saturday he ran the last kilometers of his special running tour.
With his hands spread, Maron crosses the finish line like an accomplished runner, in the middle of the Achtse Barrier neighborhood in Eindhoven. He doesn’t look very tired. Satisfied indeed. On Saturday morning he completed his mega project: running through all the streets of Eindhoven. “It feels great. It finally happened. We had a little bit of rain, but it was a very nice finish,” he says of his project that started at the end of 2023.
Several friends and acquaintances ran with Maron, who is a board member of the Eindhoven Student Athletics Association Asterix, during the last stage. Moments later, he proudly shows the map on which all Eindhoven’s streets turn orange. “It is completely finished. It will get a nice place. Great. This was definitely worth those three years. I have experienced so many wonderful things. It was a beautiful adventure that I will not forget.”
Maron loves statistics. For example, he knows that he ran a total of 2,277 kilometers, took 204 hours and needed 210 different runs to complete all the streets. He was regularly declared crazy. “Especially if I had to run across another parking lot that was also part of it. Then people look at me and think: ‘What are you doing now?'”
Strijp-S with its industrial buildings and the graffiti in the Groenewoud district made the biggest impression on Maron, who studies at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He liked running across Stratumseind the least. “It’s beautiful, but busy. And that beer smell is not for me.”
Attempt threatens to fail
Still, drinking a beer was one of the first things Maron wanted to do when he crossed the finish line. But just before that it seemed that the group would not reach the finish line at all.
A stray dog was so excited that he wanted to run and jumped up on some runners. Eventually we managed to get the dog on a leash again and Maron was able to continue towards the finish.
Maron has no plans for a new challenge for the time being. “Who knows, I might miss it a lot. There are still a few villages around Eindhoven. But we’ll see. I’m going to enjoy this first.”
