Next September 15 will take place in San Sebastian a popular race in memory of José Maria Sarriegi, Sarri, who passed away last December. The idea came from Marta Iturriza, Sarri's former doctoral student, who, after consulting with department of Industrial Organization at Tecnun, got down to work to organize a race for everyone. "As we want no one to miss out, we have planned two routes, one of 9 kilometers for the more athletic and one of 5 kilometers for those who have just started running. Both routes are very simple. In any case, if someone does not see themselves running and wants to do their bit, many volunteers are needed for the route," says Marta Iturriza.

Who are you behind this initiative?

Sarri was my thesis director and we used to go for a midday run to advance the research. I came up with the idea at the end of December and shared it with my colleagues Cinta Lomba and Patricia Maraña to see if what I had come up with was crazy or not. They liked the idea, we developed it and got down to work. Today the race is already a reality and this is also thanks to its sponsors Futboltek, Irisbond, Tecnun, Fortuna, Natra, San Sebastian City Council, Insalus, Zapiain and some others.

How did the idea of making a race at report de Sarri come up?

Sarri was very sporty and, although his passion was cycling, he used to participate in popular races during the year. In his calendar he never missed the San Silvestre of Ordizia because it was the perfect plan to say goodbye to the year. Lately he used to argue, with the personality that characterized him, that a popular race had to be that "popular", without the need of chips and much less to pay 15€ to run 9 kilometers on a Sunday. Taking that as a premise we thought that organizing a popular race would be a special way to remember him and say goodbye to him. The race on September 15 will have chip timing, but the race bib will only cost 5 euros to honor his ideas. Really the idea is that the race serves as a point of meeting, Sarri was a social person and with the race we want to bring together all those people who once shared something with him and make it a colorful event.

How many participants do you expect to have?

This is the question we all ask ourselves. We have data from similar races and we believe that there will be around 1,000 participants. On the registration platform we have set the limit at 1,500, because more registrations would be difficult to manage.

Is the idea to give it continuity over time?

We have not considered it yet. At the moment we know that this year it is going to happen. As I said before we want the race to serve as a point of meeting, if next year we want to continue meeting, so be it, but for the moment there is nothing in mind.

Are you meeting with a good reception from sponsors and participants?

Yes, the reception has been incredible. The City Council has helped us a lot with the initial paperwork, Futboltek and Irisbond did not hesitate to get involved in the race, it was not necessary to explain anything to them. Tecnun also participates giving economic support as well as facilities and means. And the rest of the sponsors have provided us with their services with an ease that has surprised us.

In general, everyone we have told about the idea or shared the website has told us that they want to participate either running or as a volunteer and that says a lot about the mark that Sarri has left. There were friends who asked us back in May when the registrations were going to be open to sign up, or people who needed to balance the calendar for reserve the date because they really want to be there on September 15th.