FH Athletes storm the Brussels 20km

On 30 May, six of FH Brussels’ finest athletes (?) took the streets of Brussels alongside 30,000 other participants to face the annual Brussels 20km run.

A great race was had by all, with some of the more seasoned runners breaking personal bests and the newbies simply surprised they had survived the ordeal. A massive round of applause goes out to ‘FH Marathon Man’ Donald Ricketts who ran a stonking time of 1:19:07 – just over 17 mins behind the race winner!

Aside from self glorification/deprecation, there is an interesting (not to mention entertaining) technological element to this piece. During the race, all participants’ times are tracked by an RFID chip attached the runner’s foot. This chip allows accurate timekeeping from when the runner crosses the starting line, at 10km, and at the finish line, providing an accurate time readout and… video footage of them crossing the finish line.

If you want to check any of the FH team crossing the finish line simply visit www.20km.be, click on ‘results’, and enter their name or number to see their time and the video. See results and numbers below.

• Donald Ricketts – 1:19:07 – #21814
• Simone Mancini (on loan) – 1:42:13 – #23184
• Ed Ratcliffe – 1:46:13 – #8946
• Malin Raman Delin – 1:46:20 – #22199
• Roeland van der Stappen – 1:54:44 – #21813
• Nick Andrews – 2:15:39 – #4298

The team’s motto of “If I can do it, anyone can” still stands, so we hope to see you there on 29 May 2011.

Ed