Evening Fridays, how to get through them? With tips.

Walking for the sixth time this year eveningvierdaagsen. While in group 0,1 and 2 this was still two evenings that we walked along, from group 3 on we actually walk along all four evenings. How to survive these evening four days?

I’ll give you some tips.

Where does the four day walk come from

How did the evening procession actually start?? My children asked me this week while walking. In 1909, the KNBLO ( Royal Dutch Association for Physical Education) was the first to introduce the ‘four-day walk’.

She organized walking marches. In 1940 walks were organized by walking clubs in the Gooi region under the name ‘avondvierdaagse’. This was taken over by other places.

After the second world war, the organization of the evening four-day walks was picked up again and now they are organized in almost all municipalities. Often the participants walk along in school.

The older the easier

Recently I wrote about it, the older the children get the easier it all gets. It certainly is with the evening foursomes. As you know by now, I am quick to see bears on the road. Now I do not want to burden my children too much with this and also really do my best to leave everything a bit ‘looser’.

Still, I experienced enough scares during the run. When I lost sight of them. Especially when they were so young, they run with so many kids.

Cars’s driving by, children running off the sidewalk. Of the oldest I know will get to the end point. But the youngest who has a sense of direction, that really needs some hard work.

Walking is a celebration

We have three schools running in our village and the laps we run are fairly similar every year At the crossing points there are crossing guards and the local supermarket, along the way, stands with an apple, candy and drink. Every year it is a party again. Especially the last day, when the drum band comes to play, the kids get a flower and it’s really made into a party.

But how to keep walking fun all these days?

Tips for the evening celebrations

My tips for a carefree evening celebration:

• Put on good footwear, it may only be 5 km but on bad shoes this is quite long.
• Take water with you. With older children, put a bottle in their hands. May they now walk in front, at least have something to drink with them.
• Take a piece of fruit with you, especially when it’s hot, this is nice and refreshing.
• Agree with your children, where you wait for each other (for us this is always at the last stamping post) if you lose each other out of sight you see each other there.
• Write your mobile number on your child’s hand.
• Try to eat beforehand, here the evening foursomes always start around 18.00 and before we get home it is actually bedtime for the boys.
• Preview the route in advance if possible. The kids definitely ask at some point how far it is, then you can tell when you’re about to reach the end point.
• I myself wear a fitbit, I always turn it on as soon as we walk, so they can see with me how many kilometers we have already run.
• And above all: Enjoy. Enjoy walking with your child. Enjoy the fun with other parents.

Are you still going to walk the Evening Marches or have you already done so like us??