Sunday, Sept. 24 was the tenth annual Brooksie Way. For the past 10 years, the race has been taking place starting on Oakland University’s campus, going through parts of Oakland County and then finishing on Oakland’s campus. Each year, the Brooksie offers a 5K, 10K, Half-marathon and a fun run for children.

Ten years ago L. Brooks Patterson, an Oakland County executive, had the idea of starting a race. His son Brooksie supported the idea, and then was killed three days later. So, someone on the committee for the race decided to name the race after Paterson’s son. The actual name “The Brooksie Way” came from a eulogy given at Brooksie’s funeral by his brother-in-law.

With 2017 being the 10th year of the race, the organizers made it a point to honor those who have participated in the race for the full 10 years and gave them recognition.

I decided to see what all the hype was about, so back in June I signed up to run the 5K. Like everyone else who runs in races, I started training daily (OK not daily, but I started training). I was running two to four miles at least three times a week thinking that it would be easy.

I was wrong.

The morning of the race, I walked a mile from Oak View Hall with my two friends Kristy Keeley and Kelsey Fischer. On the walk down, we were hyping each other up and talking out our pre-race jitters.

When we finally got to the starting line, it was an entirely different world. There were runners everywhere. Some in casual running clothes others were dressed as superheros and some were sporting tutus.

During the race, I started out strong for the first half-mile. At that point, with the heat and my poor training, I began to die. Right before the two marker I quite literally ran into my friend Megan Fisher. From there on, we ran the race together.

Toward the end of the race, when the 3 mile marker came into view, the adrenaline kicked in.  As I saw the finish line appear in the horizon, I began to sprint. When crossing the finish line the announcer said my name it hit me: My months of training were over.

Crossing the finish line opened up a whole other world. Right as you cross, you are given a medal and water. From there you could have gone to get your photo taken, get some merchandise, eat some food or head to the beer tent, (Of course I went straight to the beer tent. I’m 21, I promise).

Inside the beer tent, there was a live band and runners just relaxing and celebrating their accomplishments. The heat did not keep anybody from accomplishing their goals. Overall, I accomplished what I set out to do by simply finishing the race. But I did even better than I thought by finishing with an overall time of 35:49, and I finished 18 out of 49 with women in the age range of 20-24.

After finishing this race, I want to do more 5K’s in the future, and eventually work my way up to a half-marathon.