Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Ferguson
Hi Jake, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
We started our running club in June 2024. Myself and a friend had been noticing many running groups popping up in larger cities across the country and realized there was no one here offering that experience, so we figured why not us? The idea was to create a “third space” for young people to come and meet new people, hang out, and encourage activity for everyone. Most of our group is younger runners age 18-35, but we welcome everyone to come join us on any of our runs. All our runs are free for everyone and we love to work with different running and nutrition brands to bring free product samples to our runners at summer run clubs. We currently offer two runs per week, a Wednesday evening 5k at 6:00pm, and a Saturday morning long run and 5k, long run at 6:45am and 5k at 8:00am, and after that we usually grab coffee at Foster Coffee Co., a local coffee place downtown. At the end of our last summer season we had regular groups of 30+ runners, with our largest groups being 50+. We hope to continue growing each year and we are excited to see what this season, starting Wednesday April 9, 2025, brings.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has been a really smooth ride so far. We have not had any issue with the city, traffic, the park, or any members. The community is very welcoming and everyone is super friendly. The only thing that has been a sticking point would be that we would love to add in a track workout/run to our weekly lineup, however both local tracks at East Lansing High School and Michigan State University have denied us usage even though they are supposed to be public tracks. We are still hoping for a breakthrough with one of them sometime.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Currently I am a student at Michigan State University, studying for my Bachelors in Science. Previously I was in the United States Marine Corps, in which I worked as a Combat Engineer right after high school from 2019-2023. During that time I lived in Camp Pendleton in Southern California, which was super awesome! Following that I worked as a fitness coach with F45 through a Skillbridge/internship program between F45 and the United States Marine Corps for a year and a half before starting the East Lansing Run Club.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
For sure! I would say number one would be my business partner Derek Ostrowski, who helped me start up this run club and who still works with me to mange. Without the support I’m not sure if we would have achieved the same success. Second I would say was my family who have always been supportive in whatever I want to try and who provide a life in which I am able to put my time and effort into fun things like the run club.
Pricing:
- FREE
Contact Info:
- Website: https://eastlansingrunclub.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eastlansingrunclub/
