When Thursday's class was unexpectedly canceled, Alayna Preston '26 figured she had two options. She could sleep in. Or, she could jet set to another country, run three miles, mingle with a celebrity/idol, and make it back for Friday's class. Guess which option she picked?
Preston doesn't like running. At least she didn't. It was a necessary evil during rugby and soccer seasons, but that never made it recreational. Something changed, though, we she got to Lyon, France in January.
"A lot of people here like to run, so I approached it differently. Plus, there are two beautiful rivers here, the Rhône and the Saône. I actually started to enjoy daily runs along the water."
It was a shocking about face, but not as shocking as studying abroad in the first place. Preston caught the travel bug when she visited friends in London over spring break last year. She briefly considered a semester abroad herself, but felt tied to campus for several reasons: She didn't want to leave her friends; she didn't think she could afford it; she didn't think she could find the right courses to match her major.
"But then all of my friends decided they were going abroad for the spring. I decided it was at least worth a conversation with the Study Abroad office. As it turns out, it's cheaper for me to be in Lyon this semester and the marketing courses align perfectly with my major."
The classes have been great, but when one of them was canceled, she hatched a wild idea. Preston is a fan of the British apparel brand Gymshark, and she follows fitness influencer Lily Lifts on Instagram. Lifts and Gymshark announced a collaboration on social media – a 5K run that would start and end at a Gymshark location in London and wrap around Buckingham Palace. The run would start at 5:00 p.m., not in the same country, mind you, where Preston is living. But with her Thursday now wide open...
"I reached out to a friend of mine from Siena who's studying in Belfast, and I told her to meet me in London. I flew out Thursday morning. We met up, had an amazing lunch, then ran the 5k. Then we had dinner before killing a few hours before my 5:00 a.m. flight. I was back in France in time to take a quick nap before my Friday class."
Most of the 50 or so women who ran the 5K were local to London. Lifts heard about the two college students who actually flew in for the jog. She made a point to thank them.
"Meeting Lily was super cool. She was blown away that we were there. She created this 'run at night' club to give women the chance to run together in a safe environment. She was so kind and so thankful that we were there."
Riding the runner's high from London, Preston – who had a third ACL surgery in the fall – decided to challenge herself. With a 5K under her belt, she figured why not try a 10K? Of course, she'd need to pick a country first. Last week, Preston ran a 10K race in Italy, and now she's targeting a half marathon in Nice, France in a few weeks.
"The running is part of the discovery. I never thought I could move abroad, even though I'm really interested in sports marketing. I love rugby and soccer, and there are more opportunities for those sports overseas. Now I could see myself living in a different country when I start my career."
She's also thinking ahead to her first marathon. But she'll come back to the U.S. for that.
