Jaap Wit, the man who has participated in all editions so far, still remembers 1985 well. “I crossed the finish line with icicles in my beard and a frozen hat.” The event was later compared in the press to a crossing of the North Pole.
The ’85 edition was not only special because of the weather conditions. In the men’s race, 32-year-old Peter Rusman won, while his wife Wilma Rusman (26) won in the women’s race. She later spoke about the moment she heard that her husband was in the lead Het Parool: “He walked in the lead all by himself, being the first to put his footprints in the snow everywhere. That must have been a great feeling for him. On the other hand, I was also afraid that he would get lost. Wherever you looked on the beach and in the dunes: it was one large, white polar plain.”