Pit Van Rijswijck and his family at the finish line of the Madrid marathon;
Credit: Pit Van Rijswijck/Foyer Group
Luxembourg insurance company Foyer recently announced that one of its employees, Pit Van Rijswijck, had finished the World Marathon Challenge in second place.
The Luxembourger took on the challenge of running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days, going on to finish each marathon in less than three hours and 45 minutes. About 50 athletes had signed up for this event.
Pit had previously run several marathons, notably in Norway, Morocco and Greenland. However, this time, the challenge was also for a good cause. In 2020, his father Tun, with whom he ran regularly, died of a brain cancer called glioblastoma. Pit promised to participate in a race to support cancer research. In 2021, he signed up for the World Marathon Challenge and created his "Running against cancer" page to communicate and raise funds.
Surrounded by his family and his friends, and supported by many individuals and companies, Pit collected about €100,000 which he has donated entirely to Fondation Cancer (which also accompanied him throughout his project).
After almost two years of preparation, Pit embarked on this new challenge on 31 January 2023. He crossed the finish line of the last event in Miami (US) on 6 February 2023, having secured second place.
Commenting on the experience, he said: "I am always looking for new challenges, and the World Marathon Challenge particularly attracted me, because you leave your footprint in less than a week on all continents. And I'm someone who doesn't give up on a project until it's a success!"
