bRUNke'S on the RUN

This weekend I had low miles scheduled after a few weeks of heavy mileage. It was a breath of fresh air not having to prepare for a double digit run! I didn’t have to go to bed before 9pm, I didn’t have to get up at 4am. It was a rare occurrence for this girl, and I cherished it.

Instead for this weekend I signed up for a local 5k with my mom. Since it was near our house I decided I would run the 5k and then run back to our house to get in some extra miles. But what I didn’t count on was actually racing...

Jericho Jog Race Report:

Yes you read the title of this post right, multiple Brunke’s raced this weekend.

@ the start line

A few weeks ago my mom signed us up for a local 5k at our church, the Jericho Jog. Going into it I knew the course was going to be rolling hills. So I had no anticipation of racing or having a decent time. I figured I would take it easy and push myself on the hills to test out my legs. But something came over me going down the first hill that made me kick it into another gear. I was feeling good and decided to run how my body felt. And my body felt good despite all the punishment I had put it through during the week.

The race was small, only 200 people. But it was a lot of families with young children so I figured I might of had a chance if I went for it. The first mile ticked my quickly. It was mostly uphill and I used all those Thursday morning  hill repeats to my advantage. I was able to separate myself from the pack and get a good distance in from of them going into the second mile. Here it flattened out a little bit, but still had some good short rollers. So it was hard to get a good rhythm going.  One I popped out onto the main road I knew I had another mile that was mostly uphill, with a good hill at the very end. I used the downhills to make up some ground and pass a few more people. When I came to the big hill at the end I was mostly spent. My legs were talking, letting me know they were grumpy. I told  myself I had enough space and time to walk up the hill if I needed to. I kept running along until the very top. At that point I was more annoyed than tired. The hill never seemed to end. I told myself I would walk the last portion and then sprint it out to the finish to make up the time. I was just about to slow down and walk and a woman was at the very top telling me i was the 5th female over all and that i had one close on my heels.  So I had no choice by to push it to the finish. I ended up 2nd in my AG (19-39) and 24th overall. If it wasn’t for that spectator I would have given up and walked the rest of the hill. I was 10 seconds off my 5K PR. But being on a hilly course means that I can go even faster on a flat one. Looks like I need to find one of those ASAP and test out what my legs have!

Mommy also placed second in her AG (40-59). Her first ever AG place :) And I think it made her catch the racing bug!!! Now if I could just convince her to do a marathon!

Mom coming into the Finish and us with our AG medals!