March 20, 2011 - 4:33pm
MRUN finishes 2nd annual Race Across Michigan
BY WHITNEY WILD
At sunrise on Saturday morning, about 65 runners from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Central Michigan University gathered at the starting line for the second annual Race Across Michigan.
The 24-hour relay race began at Hart Plaza in downtown Detroit and ended at the shore of Lake Michigan in South Haven.
MRUN, the University’s running club, sponsored Race Across Michigan. The event raised money for the southeastern Michigan chapter of Girls on the Run — an international organization that encourages young girls to run as a way to promote healthy minds and bodies.
Rackham graduate student Elliott Manzon, the vice president of MRUN, came up with the initial idea for Race Across Michigan.
“We had so many runners, we could do something amazing,” Manzon said.
After driving across the state, Manzon said he realized the route from Detroit to Kalamazoo was fairly straight, and with the amount of individuals involved with MRUN, the group could easily run the distance in under 24 hours.
Manzon said MRUN decided to turn the race into a fundraiser and began shopping around for local charities. One of the team’s main criteria was choosing a local charity that could build a relationship with MRUN and the individuals who would directly benefit from the race.
“What we really liked about Girls on the Run was that it was a program related to running … that it is one of programs that it is really changing lives,” Manzon said.
When the participants reached Ann Arbor, they invited members of Girls on the Run to carry the baton with them for a mile through Gallop Park. LSA senior Sarah Brewer, president of MRUN, said the girls were really excited and enjoyed taking part in the race.
“They did a really great job,” Brewer said. “It was really cool to be able to see them in the middle of their practice and to share that with them.”
Manzon said running with the girls was a “was a really cool way for (the runners) to connect with the charity.”
“It made the entire experience a little more personal for everyone,” he said.
Though rivals during the season, MRUN invited MSU and CMU to join the race. The MSU team had only 11 runners, and when they realized they would not be able to complete the race, MRUN members helped out by transferring some of its runners to MSU’s team.
Manzon said MRUN’s members were excited to work together with their competitors. He added that the competition was not a contest between schools but a race against the clock.
“We (were) all in it together,” Brewer said.
According to Brewer, MRUN does not have a final tally of the total money raised from the race, but he speculated that the group most likely raised more than last year.
“We had more teams raising money in general, and we had more business sponsors this year as well, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was more,” Brewer said.
Brewer said the group received a lot of support from local businesses that gave monetary donations, items for a raffle and food for runners, but that individual runners raised the majority of donations.
Manzon said one of best parts of the race was getting the opportunity to spend time with local competitors while enhancing the lives of pre-teen girls. He added that MRUN would like to grow the program and invite other local colleges for next year’s race.
