Seeing something new

What started as a small project in the area around Janssen’s home has grown into a story that made the newspapers. When he runs down the final street on Saturday, March 28, broadcaster Omroep Brabant will be waiting for him, and there will undoubtedly be supporters along the route from Asterix, the student athletics association Janssen belongs to.

“I don’t need a finish arch made of balloons, but I do think something fun with sidewalk chalk would be nice.”

Janssen got the idea to run through every street in Eindhoven two and a half years ago, when the routes he had saved in Strava ended up covering the entire street grid of Aalst, where he lives. That only took half a year.

“I started athletics when I was fifteen, and the endurance runs from my house were starting to feel boring. I’m someone who always wants to discover everything, see everything. That’s why I started running through every street in Aalst.”

“Once that was done, I realized I’d still be studying in Eindhoven for years and had the time to run every street there as well. It’s fun—like a game. I choose which block I’ll run, usually about ten to twelve kilometers, and ‘color it in.’ My average speed doing this is about eleven kilometers per hour.”

At the time of this interview, Janssen has covered 2,240 kilometers through the streets of Eindhoven. “That’s about the distance from Eindhoven to the Turkish border,” he notes. Those kilometers took 200 hours in total, spread across 205 runs.

Sometimes with a dog chasing him, once weaving through the crowds on Stratumseind, on New Year’s Eve dodging fireworks. But also in places where he loved running, such as the Stadswandelpark and Strijp-S.

“In Limbeek I unexpectedly discovered how much beautiful graffiti there is there: a hidden piece of Eindhoven I otherwise would never have seen.”

Besides being a game, filling in the Strava map also functions as endurance training and as recovery after intense competitions. Janssen joined Asterix in 2022 and recently competed in the Dutch Student Indoor Athletics Championships (NSK) in Apeldoorn. His specialty is middle-distance running.

In 2024, Janssen contacted the media about his street challenge. After an article in the Eindhovens Dagblad, he realized: now I can’t give up. Not that the word is in his lexicon. “I finish everything I start.”

On the way

If Janssen has to name three memorable moments, they would be the time he struggled through the snow, the day he had to run all the way around Eindhoven Airport, and his visit to Wielewaal.

“The nice thing about park De Wielewaal is that it was only recently opened to the public. I thought it would be beautiful and symbolic to finish there. But the area is much smaller than I expected—I’d already run through it before I even realized it.”

Running through the TU/e campus took Janssen four sessions. “That was really fun, although the parking lots were very annoying.” The fourth run, which allowed him to cross the campus off the map, didn’t happen until a year after the first three.

“Student housing complex Haven was a large construction site for a long time, and I didn’t have access. When I finally ran there a few months ago, I discovered Bakkie040. I didn’t even know it existed, and now I go there regularly. It’s a great coffee spot. That’s how I kept discovering new things in my own city—or in this case on ‘my own’ campus.”

Inspiring others

With his running project, Janssen hopes to inspire fellow students to do something besides attending lectures and taking exams. “It makes your student years so much more fun and memorable.”

He himself has already collected many great memories during his board year at Asterix, his time as chair of the Asterix society Toutatis, and his part-time job waiting tables at De Zwarte Doos.

“If I have some time between my bachelor’s and master’s, I’m considering joining a student team. I haven’t checked that one off yet.” Janssen hopes to start a master’s program in the 2027–2028 academic year outside TU/e, or ideally even outside the Netherlands, “together with my girlfriend.”

Advice

“Know that more is possible than you think,” is the first tip athlete Janssen wants to share with other students.“Sometimes things seem like a huge challenge, but if you break them into small pieces, you can handle a lot. That applies not only to running—it also works when you have to read twenty textbooks.”

Next: “Don’t compare yourself too much with other people. Everyone has different qualities or, when it comes to sports performance, a different body type. Comparing doesn’t make much sense. Focus mainly on yourself.”

Peace of mind

Only once he has completed his personal challenge will Janssen be satisfied. “When I’ve seen all the streets of Eindhoven, I can leave for abroad with peace of mind.”

Although Janssen finds it difficult to take it easy, he plans to let this achievement sink in for a while. “I probably won’t immediately start on another city. But if I start to miss it, there are plenty of villages in the region that I could run as well.”

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.