By Shelby Stewart
Staff Wrtier
Ortonville-Christina Bray is tired.
And for good reason.
Bray, a trainer at Fit Body Boot Camp, 4 N. Ortonville Road is a distance runner—a very long distance runner.
On Oct. 6-7 the local athlete went the distance for more than 24 hours participating in a race that covered 100 miles.
“It was a 100 mile run, the Hennepin Hundred Miler,” said Bray. “There’s a trail called the Hennepin trail, it’s 300 miles. Hennepin, it’s a canal, the trail follows the water.”
The Bray ran is from Sterling, Ill. to Colona, Ill. It took her 27 hours and 48 minutes.
“This is my first 100 mile, I’ve done over 30 marathons, 20-some half marathons, a handful of 50ks,” she said. “It was crazy. You get up at 2:45 in the morning, be at a bus stop at 4 a.m., they bus you out to the starting line at 5 a.m., for the race to start at 7 a.m., you’ve already been awake for like three hours at that point.”
A total of 198 people started running the race, and around 70 people dropped out before the finish line.
“I had a great run until about hour 16. The running at night is hard, then rain on top of it. I fell asleep a couple of times running,” she said. “I’m an endurance junkie. It helps keep me sane.”
Bray says she runs often, which helped her train for the race.
“Lots and lots and lots of early morning runs, like 2 a.m.” she said. “My normal running time is 5 a.m., I’m a single mom to a 4-year-old so that’s really the only time I can go.”
Though Bray enjoyed the experience, she is going to take a bit of a break,
“I’m really tired,” she said. “The next big thing for me won’t be until January, I’m going to run the Yankee Spring 50 Miler.”