We knew this even before we set off for Monéteau/Sougères, our French partner municipality, on 9 May 2004, as we wanted to strengthen the Franco-German partnership with our annual visit and also take part in the half marathon organised by the municipality.

On the way back, the feeling of happiness from the run still in our stomachs and the winning red wine in our blood, we had an idea of how we could live out and enjoy the fun of running together: A running community!

So far, everyone has been training on their own, but we thought it would be much nicer to meet up once a week, run together and have fun.

LG Meulenwald Föhren: That's what it should be called, our running community. After all, the Meulenwald was and is our beautiful running area. As we saw ourselves as an open interest group, we initially decided not to add "Föhren" to our name. Standardised jerseys and a logo allowed us to appear as a single unit at fun runs in the region and, over time, the questions about our origins became more and more frequent, so we decided to add our home town of Föhren to our name and, not least, our logo. This is how we finally changed from LG Meulenwald to the no less open running community Meulenwald Föhren.

We were delighted to see more and more runners taking part in our weekly Saturday run through the forest and our running community has grown accordingly.

A lot has changed since the return journey from France in May 2004: An idea became reality, the Meulenwald running community became the LG Meulenwald Föhren and a few runners became a large group.

But one thing remains the same: the annual trip to Monéteau, the half marathon and, of course, the winning red wine that goes with it.

This is how the LG Meulenwald (Föhren) was formed back in 2004 during a coach trip. And who would have thought back then that today we would be a successful group that enjoys running all the more. On 20 February 2010, we finally officially founded the LG Meulenwald Föhren e.V.

The almost endless routes in the beautiful Meulenwald forest make "our" running area a true runner's paradise. The starting point for all our scenic runs is the  Viezkelterstation in the Hofstraße in Föhren in the immediate vicinity of Föhren Castle.

From here we set off on our Tuesday and Saturday runs, usually together. But even those who want to run alone in the Meulenwald are in good hands. A well-signposted network of paths allows for many variations in the routes. So even after many long runs, it never gets boring and there is always something new to discover along the way. It is particularly nice to experience the different types of vegetation throughout the year. Every season has its own charms.

Even in the snow, it's fun to "walk" through nature and fill up on fresh oxygen in the idyllic Meulenwald, far away from car exhaust fumes and other disruptive environmental influences.