Martien Baars is the founding race director of ‘De Zestig van Texel’. This ultrarun around the island of Texel is on Easter Monday of the odd years. The first edition of the 60K and the relay 4x15K was in 1991 and two years later the 120K was added. It is now the most popular ultramarathon of The Netherlands and is twinned with the Jan Knippenberg Memorial, 100 miles along the beaches of Holland, Easter Saturday of the even years.

Tell us something about the race we cannot find on the homepage of the event
The Wadden island Texel is often called ‘Nederland on small scale’ as it has (nearly) all the landscapes and habitats you may found in our low country. Thus a running tour of 60K around the island gives you a fair overview of Nederland in general, with beach, dunes, woods, polders, mudflats, dikes, mills, authentic villages, fishing harbour and finally a hilly area which is called the ‘High Mountain’ (altitude only 15 metres . A very special habitat is the large sandflat Hors, where the runners meet desert-like conditions for two miles before they reach the beach coastline.

Do you have a favourite mile? Have you run the race yourself in the past?
My favourite mile would be the one but last as this carries over prehistoric grounds, the boulder clay area of the High Mountain. This hill was formed already more than 100 000 years ago during the Saale ice age, and has been inhabited by Neanderthaler and Cro Magnon people as shown by the stone tools that experts here found. It is holy ground to present day runners if you imagine that these predecessors were excellent hunters by chasing wild animals to death. Also, Jan Knippenberg, the Dutch ultra-pioneer and initiator of the Texel 60K and 120K races, is buried here at a small cemetery, so his remembrance accompanies many runners during the last stretch to the finish.
Three years after ‘Knip’ died of cancer in November 1995, I ran the 60K privately, in honour of Jan and as demonstration that every modal runner could manage this distance beyond the marathon. It took me 7 hrs (the present day cutoff) but it was the highlight of my own running career.

Apart from a pair of shoes and a smile, what would you like runners to bring to the race?
Very practical: their own chip (if they have indicated to possess one). From a mental view point: to start with realistic expectations and with the intention to enjoy the run, atmosphere and environment, instead of chasing a finish time. A lot of runners make their ultra début in the Texel race and we tell them that the loop is not 60K but 70K if they like to predict their Texel finish time by extrapolating their marathon times. Last year we organized an introductory meeting and a training weekend to explain prospective participants that anybody who can run a 4hr15min marathon, can also participate in this ultrarun. We would like finishers in Texel to return and/or continue ultrarunning in other races as well.

Some numbers: how many people are involved in the organization of the event? How many runners do you expect for the next edition? How many from abroad?
There is a loyal corps of volunteers of about 170 in total. The loop of 60K itself requires only 30 road posts as most parts are prohibited for cars. More than 900 participants (368 ultra – 60 from abroad – and 550 relay runners) on 25 April 2011 imply that the 12th edition on 1 April 2013 will possibly have about 1000 runners. Many more will be impossible due to logistic restraints. By the way, the organizing committee of 9 persons is still very happy with the biannual frequency as the arranging of a race over a long point to point course of 60K remains a very time consuming hobby.

What is your favourite race (excluding the ones you organize)?
In my own experience (the warm 1990 edition of) the Comrades Marathon: it is the ultrarun with by far the largest field worldwide and the longest history. A recent documentary on the 2008 edition by Simpson & Tatarczyk gives a splendid insight about the role the Comrades plays in South-African society. My own plan to prepare for the Two Oceans Marathon was abandoned when my left ankle turned out to suffer arthrosis, but running on soft Texel bottom is still allowed.

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