HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) — Running is nothing new for Hudsonville High School math teacher Raychel Figurski.

“I was a runner my whole life. I ran cross-country and track in middle school. I ran in high school. I ran in college at Western,” Figurski, who is the daughter of former News 8 sports reporter Larry Figurski, said.

When she’s not running, her free time is spent coaching the high school cross-country team.

Figurski is also no stranger to marathons. Despite having told her own cross-country coach in high school that she’d never run one, Figurski is now getting ready for her 11th.

“I have always wanted to run all of the world majors,” Figurski explained. “There’s Berlin, London, Tokyo, and then in the U.S., we have Chicago, Boston and New York.”

So far, she’s done Chicago, Boston and Berlin.

The New York City Marathon is the world’s largest marathon, but it’s one of the most difficult to get into. So when Figurski learned about a contest through information technology company Tata Consultancy Services that awards entry to teachers, applying was a no-brainer. 

“So most people, to get into the New York City Marathon, you either enter your name in a lottery and get lucky and get picked, or you have a fast enough time qualifier to get in,” Figurski explained. “This was like a totally separate thing.”

The questions on the application included: What inspires you to run? How do you inspire your students? What is your running experience that made you a better teacher or your teaching experience that made you a better runner?

The last question hit home for Figurski because of how difficult her running journey has been for the last two years. 

“In the fall of 2021, I was on top of the world running-wise. That year, I think I ran a PR in every event, from the mile up to the marathon, which is such a wide range, not very normal,” Figurski recalled. “So that was so exciting. And after the last marathon, I kind of just didn’t feel normal.”

She added that it’s common to not feel great after a race because of the physical toll it takes on your body, but she never got back to normal.

“I started having pain in my leg and I couldn’t really figure it out for the longest time. So I talked to my doctor, we did some MRIs, X-rays, things like that, and then I found out I had bilateral labrum tears in both of my hips,” Figurski said. “So the MRI showed that basically my femur, where the femur goes into the hip socket, wasn’t shaped right. I had extra bone growth on this bone, so it wouldn’t rotate and move around smoothly. It would jump, and then it tore my labrum, unfortunately.”

Right when the school year started in August 2022, Figurski had surgery on her right hip to reshape her femur and patch up the labrum. Six weeks later, she had the same surgery on her left hip. Nine months after that, she had knee surgery.

“So in one school year, I squeezed in three surgeries on three of your four major running joints basically all at once,” she said.

Figurski hardly took any time off teaching, because she wanted to be there for her students. And as soon as she was able to start running again, she did.

“I realized when I couldn’t run, I missed it more. You know, I think that happens with a lot of us. We take things for granted, right?” Figurski reflected. “Months off and having to be on crutches and relearn how to walk and then start the process over again and rebuild all the muscle and bone strength, that was just … it made me realize I’m doing all of this stuff and rehab so I can run again, not just to go back to a normal life. So kind of just motivated me to get back at it and now I’m just slowly, very slowly, trying to get back to where I was before surgeries.”

That’s why she knew she had to enter the contest. Figurski was shocked when she learned she was selected as one of 50 teachers — out of 1,000 applicants — who were awarded entry into the TCS New York City Marathon, which will take place on Sunday.

For the first time, she’ll get to combine both her passions: teaching and running.

“My whole goal for this race is to just run with gratitude, because I can run, but then also to run for my students. I try to teach them that everything that you do in life comes down to your effort. Your effort is the most important,” Figurski said. “You have hard days, you have things that you don’t want to happen, like surgery, but you can come back from it.”

Figurski said she’s looking forward to meeting the other Team TCS teachers and joining 50,000 other runners with stories of their own. She again refuses to miss a beat in the classroom, so she will fly out Friday after school gets out and fly home just hours after completing the 26.2-mile race on Sunday.