80 KM KENNEDYMARCH
The Kennedymarch over 50 miles or 80 kilometres begins with a mass start on 28-06-2025 at 20:00 at the Witte Stein. Including the start and finish refreshments, there are nine official supply posts along the route. In addition to food and drink, there will also be sanitary facilities at all intermediate posts, as well as timekeeping and first aid posts in some places.
The route of the Kennedymarch is a circular course in the shape of an ‘8’. The stage area at the Witte Stein is therefore crossed three times, at the start, halfway and at the finish. The luggage depot is also located at the Witte Stein, so that it is possible to change clothes at the halfway point, for example.
The participation fee is EUR 25.00*. Registration and payment are only possible online. The registration deadline is exactly one week before the starting shot, i.e. June 21st, 20:00 or as soon as all 450 starting places have been allocated.
We use the registration form of the Royal Dutch Walking Association (Koninklijke Wandel Bond Nederland, KWBN), which is only available in Dutch language. On our registration page we provide a translation aid that can be displayed when filling in the form.
Speaking of which! The Kennedymarch*EU is an officially authorised Kennedymarch of the KWBN. Of course we will provide the popular participation stamp in the ‘Kennedywalker Stempelkaart’.
The route of the Kennedymarch is clearly signposted throughout and at short intervals. For this reason, and to ensure that nobody takes an unauthorised shortcut, the exact route will not be announced before the event.
The second half of the Kennedymarch runs through Dutch territory. The participants in the Kennedymarch share this route with the participants in the marathon distance. However, both groups are on the course at different times.
* By European standards, an entry fee of EUR 25.00 is incredibly cheap. In the Netherlands, this is a normal price. As we aim to have half participants from the Netherlands and half from Germany, we are orientating ourselves on the Dutch price structure.
Why Kennedy, actually?
Around 1920, US President Theodore Roosevelt issued an order that members of the military should be able to walk 50 miles in 20 hours. President John F. Kennedy renewed this order in 1962, and the first person to set off on the 80-kilometre walk from the White House to the weekend retreat at Camp David was Kennedy’s brother Robert F. Kennedy. Although he got lost in the icy winter temperatures, newspaper reports motivated scouts all over the country to do the same. Our sport was born.
An American press article soon spread to the Netherlands, where seven students in Sittard set off on the march and founded the largest popular sports movement in the Netherlands. Today, a Kennedymarch takes place somewhere in the Kingdom almost every weekend of the year. In Germany, however, the ‘Kennedymarch’ format is still virtually unknown. Until today!