…and just like that, She’s an Ultra marathoner

Editor’s note: This race recap is from my daughter, Emma Bruno. Every father wants his children to follow in his footsteps. Well, after 26 years, I finally got my wish. It was great to see Emma intense training, and that training paying off with her first race. Enjoy

In early June, I got back from a trip with my best friend and my boyfriend said he has been running again while I was gone, so I started running with him — just a couple miles a day for a few weeks. Soon enough my 26th birthday was approaching and I thought back to my dad and uncle’s 50th birthdays when they ran 50 miles. I knew I couldn’t just crank out my first ever marathon so I decided to run 26 miles that week, which felt like a reasonable goal considering I had run 24 the week prior. I welcomed my 26th year with a desire to keep improving myself, so I kept running. As the weeks of summer went on, I continued to increase my mileage gradually with the guidance and encouragement of Garrett, my training partner and boyfriend. We kept running and enjoying the sunshine and satisfaction of continual improvement. One day my dad called me and said “Are you gonna take a down week?” and I said “What are you talking about?” to which he replied, “You can’t just keep ramping up your mileage forever, take it down a notch this week, why dontchya?”. This surprised me because I had just been tracking my runs via the Garmin connect app … or so I thought. He told me he had been tracking my progress via Strava for the past few months and was “pretty impressed”. I now realized that the Garmin app was still connected to Strava from when I was in my last, short-lived “running era” right after I graduated college and my soccer career was over. So, I redownloaded the Strava app, caught up on all my kudos, and realized I had so many fans (a whole 33 followers and 5 of them are related to me)! I also liked the dashboard where you could see the line of your activities and at this point mine had steadily been increasing. It was a visual representation of the work I had been putting in to better myself and I liked what I was seeing. 

So, like any smart runner would, I took my dad’s advice and took my first down week and I really felt like a runner now. Not only that, but I also had my coach locked in. From then on, I started to text my dad updates like “First 40 mile week!” and “Just ran 10 miles and felt great”. It was awesome to connect with my dad again in a way we had spent many years bonding together — through the love of sport. He continued to encourage and mostly inspire me as he started to share more of what he was up to as we conversed. I have had the pleasure and honor of crewing him for several ultras but now I feel like I had really entered his world because I was running and actually taking it pretty seriously. 

As more miles and months went by, Garrett encouraged me to pick a race — something to train for and at first I thought I couldn’t do it but he quickly reminded me that I was actively doing it! He started doing what he does best — researching — and found a 50k the first week of December an hour or so outside Chicago. He said I would be ready for it and I believed him because 1) he has run a 50k before and 2) he had run just about every single mile with me all summer so I decided I was going to do it. I called my dad to ask if he would come crew me. He said “How bout this, you come down here the second week of December to run the Buffalo Run 50k? I’ll pay for your race entry and I won’t have to come to Chicago in December.” I thought about it for a second and said “You’ll pay for my entry? That makes me a sponsored athlete!” and he quickly reminded me that he had “sponsored” my whole life up until a few years ago but that was beside the point.

With a race on the calendar and sponsorship lined up, training became more structured now that I had a goal in mind. I started to make my long runs longer and listened to my dad’s advice of “Run long on Saturday and longer on Sunday”. I brought my GoPro on a few training runs to record my 50k ultramarathon training vlogs because quite honestly, I love rewatching my own videos. If you want to watch them, you can find a few here. But as the weeks went by, I found myself having less time to record and edit because I just wanted to run. A friend of mine asked me what happened to my vlogs and I told him I didn’t have time for it because I was “laser focused” on my training. 

Throughout the summer I was actually quite committed to my training. Friends and family would invite me to do things and I would say “Yes, but I might be a little late because I have to run (insert number of miles) first.” I have spent a lot of my life doing things for other people, perhaps putting their needs/wants ahead of my own but I decided it was time to start keeping the promises that I made to myself. 

I started to carry that sentiment with me into every run. I teach and practice yoga, so I am into things like mantras, mindfulness and meditation — all of which I found within running. Before long, I began each of my runs with a short mediation and a moment of gratitude for myself and my training, which helped me fall deeper in love with running. I also started reading books like Mindful Ultrarunning, Ultra Mindset and every other running book we had on our bookshelf that Garrett had previously read. 

The countdown to my race was getting closer and closer when I got a call from my boss asking if I could travel to client’s board retreat the second week of November. I thought that was getting a little too close to my race and I didn’t want it to interfere with any of my big training runs but I asked her where the trip was and she said “It’s in Charleston, South Carolina” and I said “Okay, I’m in!” because I knew it was only a couple hours from my dad’s house and it would give me an opportunity to see and run with him. 

Naturally, my dad dropped everything he was doing to drive 2+ hours just to hang out with me for a couple hours … just like old times! He arrived at my hotel, ran on his own while I was finishing up with work then we set out for a 10 miler together. This is the first time I had run with my dad in years and we were both smiling ear to ear. We talked a lot about my training and he asked if I felt ready and I said “Yeah I think so, but I’m nervous” and he said “No you’re not, you’re excited” — so right then and there I decided I was excited. As we continued to make our way across the Charleston bridge, my dad mentioned that I had some potential competition in the Buffalo Run. Since this is my first race, I decided not to worry about the competition and press on. We ran all the way to Mt. Pleasant, took a lap on the track my dad set his 50 mile record on, and took a selfie. He said this was his favorite run of 2024 which made my heart happy. 

 

After a few more weeks of training, race week had finally arrived. Garrett and I cranked out our last few easy runs in frigid winter weather in Chicago before heading down to South Carolina on Thursday evening. My dad picked us up at the airport and we had a chill few days leading up to the race with a heated yoga class, a shakeout run and lots of relaxation. On Saturday, I headed to my first ever packet pickup. I was jazzed about it but of course, it was pretty anticlimactic. Afterwards, we headed to the grocery store to pick up snacks I needed for the race and went home to pack up all my gear and nutrition. 

This should come as no surprise but I was certainly overpacked in every category. I had three different outfit options and enough fuel to last me probably 4x the length of my race but nobody said a word — they just let me do my thing. To be honest, I think I was most nervous about the prep and making sure I would have everything I needed. With my large tub packed of everything I could need and more, I settled into bed around 7:45pm, set my alarm for 3:30am and reflected on some advice I received … “Just try to enjoy it. It’s easy to get swept up in the pressure and anxiousness of it, but you’ll blink and it’ll be over if you don’t remind yourself why you’re doing it.” (thanks Alex) So instead of letting my thoughts race as I fell asleep, I reminded myself that the whole reason I am doing this is for ME. I’m not doing it to make my record-setting, ultrarunning dad proud of me or for the kudos on Strava, I’m doing it to prove to myself that I can do hard things and that I am worth the sacrifices it takes to do them.

My excitement for the day woke me up before my alarm and race day commenced! I enjoyed my coffee and breakfast, geared up, and we headed off to Palmetto Bluff. When we arrived I felt like I should be nervous but I wasn’t. I kept thinking to myself “Literally all you have to do is run — that’s what you came here to do”. Moments before the race, I took a walk with my dad where he gave me some final words of advice — “Don’t go out too hard. Just run your race. I’m already so proud of you.” And then I finally headed to the starting line. Since it was still dark, I was using a headlamp for the first time and I was so focused on getting that situated that when the race started, I almost forgot to start my watch like a total amateur, but luckily I was reminded by everyone around me so I clicked start and headed off to finally become and ultramarathoner. 

This 50k consisted of 5 six mile loops. For the first loop, it was dark for almost the whole thing. All I could see was about 3 feet in front of me and I had really no idea what the course actually looked like other than the ground. When I completed the first loop and made it back to the tent, my crew was ON IT! Garrett gave me the fuel I needed and of course tried to push more on me because he knew I needed it and my dad tried to fix my bib for me. I was using a belt he gave me to clip my bib on to and about 7 minutes into the race, one side ripped off. I was afraid to loose my bib so i took it off and tucked it in my pocket. With my bib reattached, I saw my biggest competition coming into the aid station so I said “Alright, I gotta go!” and just like that, I was off for lap two. 

This lap was nice because I could actually see my surroundings in the light of day and  frankly I couldn’t believe I was already on the second lap! I wasn’t paying too much attention to my pace but I noticed I ticked off more than a few sub 9 miles so I was cruisin’ and feelin’ good. When I finished lap two and came back to the tent, my dad was just rolling in from his run — apparently he didn’t expect me back so soon! I told him I needed help again with my bib and he helped me resituate while Garrett gave me a handful of teddy grahams to stuff in one pocket and a handful of goldfish for the other. And in another blur, I was out of the aid station and on to my third lap. 

I continued along, the majority of the race running by myself — truly running my own race … although every time I saw someone near me, I checked their bib to see if they were in the 50k, the 50k relay, the 30k or the 10k because while I was running my own race, I certainly am a competitive son of a bitch and didn’t want to let anyone pass me that was racing against me. Halfway through this lap I thought “Damn, I’m half way done with this race and still feeling pretty good!” which gave me hope for the back half. Going into my race, the furthest I had ever run was a couple 24 mile training runs so I knew everything after loop 4 would be uncharted territory. As I came into the tent after the third lap, I needed my dad to fix my bib again and shouted “This thing pretty much sucks!!” meaning the belt I was wearing but I think some people thought I meant the race. At this point, Garrett informed me that I was currently the third place female and I genuinely didn’t believe him but I, of course didn’t have time to fact check him so I took his word for it. We finally ditched the belt and safety pinned my bib directly to my singlet and I felt secure as I set off for the fourth lap. 

 

This lap was by far the most challenging — physically and mentally. My pace had slowed down 30+ seconds a mile and I thought to myself “Should I have just done the 30k? I would be done by now!” but then I remembered, I want to be a fucking ultrarunner!! I thought back to what my dad told me on our training run together in Charleston — “Your body believes what your mind tells it to” — so I found my newest mantra — “I can and I will”. I repeated that phrase to myself for about 5 miles, continuing to build on my forward momentum and soon enough, I was back to our tent. To my surprise, Garrett informed me that I was now the second place female which fired me up! I grabbed more snacks, electrolytes and prepared for my final lap. My dad reminded me that this is where my training would really pay off. But as I set off, I thought to myself “All I have to do is make it back here one more time” and so I went. 

There were a ton of volunteers at different portions of the course to help ensure we stayed on track and each lap when I passed this one old guy, I said “You’ll only see me X more times!” and every time he said “Okay well you know where to find me!” and on the fifth and final lap, I informed him that this was the last he would be seeing of me and he got up out of the bed of his truck to give me and high five and said “Keep rockin’ it” and so I did. I continued with enthusiasm knowing that I was nearing the end. On my 26th mile, I looked down at my watch and realized I was about to hit 26.2, my first ever marathon, and just as it happened, I ran past an old guy in the 10k walk and shouted out to him “I just ran my first ever marathon and I’m still going!!!” to which he responded “Wow! I don’t even like to drive that far!” … I laughed and kept running. It felt great to know that I just accomplished something so many people strive for and I kept going. At that point, I only had a few miles left on the course (which ended up being 29.9 miles) and I was jazzed to only have half a loop left. At this point, there were a ton of other people out there in the various races that shouted out words of encouragement as I weaved past them. 

When I rounded the bend on the final lap and saw the finish line, all I could do was smile … and keep running. The joy I felt was simply incredible. To hear my dad, Garrett and everyone else cheering for me was so special. I crossed the finish line in 4:40:41 and ran right into Melissa’s arms as she was taking some awesome pictures of my finish. I was so excited to find my favorite guys and hug my biggest supporters — the two people I could not have done this without — Garrett and my dad. They were just as elated as I was. I grabbed my hoodie and sweats and sat back down in the tent. I couldn’t believe what I had just accomplished. I finished as the second place female and ninth overall. Because of my training, I knew I could complete the 50k but I didn’t think I would do so well. I had truly surprised myself and I was so damn proud. 

… and just like that — she’s an ultramarathoner!