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Ibex organizes a 21 hour race

‘It has to do with teams, endurance, sacrifice and each other.’ This is how Ibex typifies the 21 hour adventure race that the student climbing association is organizing in November. This year the students that are participating will be challenged on the Wageningen landscapes.

The race is an initiative by the Student Alpen Clubs (SAC’s) throughout the Netherlands and is organized by the winning team of the last race. The 150 biking, canoeing, running and sometimes swimming students travel through the Dutch landscapes, where they navigate using maps and coordinations. Sometimes in freezing cold and pouring rain.

Together with two other Ibexers the Wageningen students Bram Wennekes and Jonathan Filius won the adventure race last year and are bringing the race to Wageningen. With her origins in Wageningen the Battle of SACs will return to the place where it all began fourteen years ago. The adventure race in and around Wageningen will start on Friday evening the 6th of November and will finish the day after.

The race is special, the guys said. ‘For 21 hours you are constantly busy. At the start you think: what have I started? But when you reach the finish you feel satisfaction. It is over,’ says Bram. Jonathan: ‘And the preparations are always fun: baking pancakes, cooking pasta, and gathering snickers, cereal bars, peanuts, and power gels, all to bring along.’

Can the organization already give a sneak preview of the course? While Bram laughs he says, ‘that is top secret.’ And then more serious: ‘It is justified in a Wageningen manner.’ The preparation and planning was not ideal, because three of the four organizers were abroad for their minor or internship and the fourth was away during the whole summer period for his work. Bram: ‘But eventually it will all be fine.’

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