Next Friday, I will depart on a trip that I don't think I will forget easily. Together with a group of colleagues, I will head to Paris (the French one), where we will start the Roparun on Saturday 12.44 pm sharp. The Roparun is a 520 km (320 miles) sponsored run from Paris to Rotterdam (The Netherlands), in support of cancer patients. The motto is "Leven toevoegen aan de dagen, waar geen dagen meer kunnen worden toegevoegd aan het leven": "To add life to days, were no days can be added to life". Any money collected is used for activities to improve the quality of life of terminal cancer patients. The Roparun is organized yearly over the Pentecost weekend, which has a free Monday in the Netherlands. We are expected to arrive on Monday in the afternoon.

Roparun was named for Rotterdam-Paris, but since it's organized by people in Rotterdam, there were a lot of people at the start, but almost nobody at the finish in Paris, except for the other teams and the organization. They then decided to start running the other way. Last year the number of people standing next to the road despite the rain, and the mass of people at the finish line was amazing: friends, family, patients, health care professionals and many more.

As a group of health economists, with a professor who works mainly in the field of cancer research, we felt it was only natural that we would put our names down for this event. It has been a personal wish to participate for a few years, ever since I first heard about it, but you can't do it alone: you need a team. Now I do.

Our team exists of two groups of 4 runners, who each will run 1.5 km (about 0.9 miles) and will then be switched for the next runner. A van with everybody on board will then drive to the next relay point. This goes on for 4 hours, after which the next group of 4 runners starts. The first group then has four hours to get to base camp, eat and sleep, before heading back to the road again. A runner is always accompanied by two cyclists, one in front to navigate and lead the way (and at night light the way), one at the back as a protection. Cyclists go at a very slow pace, which is really tiring for a cyclist, in the mean time trying to keep the runner safe, focused and motivated. Even in the dead of night, or when it rains, or when the runner is in pain, or whatever else can go wrong. I am one of those cyclists.
As soon as we enter the Netherlands (Monday morning), the cars are not allowed on the route anymore, so all runners have to ride a bike (hey, we're Dutch - we do EVERYTHING by bike) until it's their turn to run again. The final 3 km, starting at the Daniel den Hoed cancer hospital in Rotterdam, both groups will join for a final triumphant finish.
Every runner will have completed 1.5 marathon in two days of running, all on very little sleep, plus the bicycle km in the Netherlands. Every cyclist will have finished about 170 km (100 miles).
With two cooks, four drivers / technicians, base camp coordinator, two therapists, etc, the teams is about 25 people.

Last year the rain was cold and persistent, which made it even harder than it normally is. This year the weather seems to be sunny and 25C (75F). Still, the exhaustion will be terrible, and we will need all the cheers we can get. So, if you have a moment next Weekend to cheer: please do.