FEGUNL + 1

Our Relay Team Shirts - with an image of one of
our professors who led the FEGU trip.
He's one of a kind.

This past Sunday a group of my friends and I ran a relay team marathon. (I didn't run a marathon, I ran a part of the marathon equaling 4.8 miles). To provide some context for why I have a team of people who are willing to run a relay like this, I need to go back to my trip to the Netherlands. While in the Netherlands, my friend Heather and I would consistently wake up and go running. I went about every other day, and we ran through the streets of Maastricht, Paris, and Amsterdam. About half-way through our trip, we encouraged others to join us, and others did. Three other folks would come running with us about twice a week, and we called ourselves casually the FEGUNL running team. (FEGU stands for Fellowship to Enhance Global Understanding, NL, obviously, Netherlands). One of our FEGUNL runners who joined us is a serious runner, so it was natural to have her join us, even though she prefers to run in the evening.

Now fast-forward to September. A couple of weeks ago we all drove up to Alma, MI, where there was a 5k. Why Alma, an hour away? One of our FEGUNL running team members is a cyclo-cross racer, and hosts his own race there. So, we ran the little 5k that went along with it. Well, I didn't because I was nursing a pulled calf muscle. But Kevin, along my three other FEGU friends did run. (Kevin we joked was our "plus 1" for the FEGU team). Then that evening, by a random conversation about running as a relay team and passing a baton, we immediately decided to sign up for the Capital City Marathon, Relay, 5K and 10K. We hustled to make tshirts, sort out who would run which leg, and make a plan. I, personally, am now hooked on running these kinds of relays. Especially now we have matching tshirts. So I foresee another relay in our collective future.