Kennedymarch in Haaksbergen

The birth of a tradition

On March 23, 1963, Messrs. B. Goorhuis, B. Hartman, C. Nijenbrink, J. Olthof, J. Scheggetman and G. Westerhof left Haaksbergen to complete an 80-kilometer walk. They left at one o'clock at night and arrived back in Haaksbergen at half past four in the afternoon. In Sittard, four young people decided to walk those 80 kilometers during their Easter vacations. They found seven more young people willing to set out with them. On April 20, 1963, they walked a three-country route. With only one dropout, the group arrived at the final destination dead tired after 19 hours. A tradition was born.

The Kennedymarch in Haaksbergen

In 1987 the Kennedymars was organized for the first time in Twente. Wandel Kring DIO Haaksbergen took the initiative with, among others, B. Goorhuis, who in 1963 already once brought the 80 km to his name. In cooperation with newspaper Tubantia, readers were invited to walk 80 kilometers. For weeks on end, star reporter Pieter Bos (his brother is Chris Bos, the ex-march leader of the Nijmegen Four-Day Walk) wrote about walking. Reporters from Dagblad Tubantia made trips through Twente and wrote about the details, all to train for that big march in September. There was a spontaneous response from readers. 80 kilometers is quite a distance and so the idea was born to organize a Night Walking Marathon as well. The Day Walk Marathon also came about at the request of walkers, especially for those who do not want to walk at night. Of course, the marathons approach the distance of 42 kilometers and 195 meters as closely as possible. The total field of participants has grown to about 1,100 participants.

3rd weekend of September

Every 3rd weekend of September you can join the Kennedymarch in Haaksbergen.

More information and registration

Sign up and read more about the Kennedymars can be found here