English teacher, Ashley Gehringer formerly known as Ms.Pozel participates in 5k runs. She started running in college when her family signed up for a fun-run 5k, and she ended up really enjoying it. “It was the first time I’d ever actually run as a sport itself and wasn’t very good; I had zero stamina and had to take a ton of walk breaks. I still had a lot of fun with it though and made it a goal to finish my first half marathon that year, so I signed up for the Brewers Mini Marathon at Miller Park that summer and trained every day leading up to it. It was nerve-wracking to run her first half, but I finished and loved it and stuck mostly with it ever since, Gehringer said.
She and her husband Jack ran the Turkey Trot 5k along the Milwaukee Lakefront this past Thanksgiving. They do this run every year and really like the course and the crowd. They definitely weren’t in this one to PR but still finished faster than their goal time and got participation donuts right after.
Running used to impact her life really significantly. If she was training for a run, she planned her entire days around her long runs and wouldn’t meet up with people to hang out until she’d gotten her run in for the day. Lately it’s become more of an energy output and a way to stay active and let off stress. She still does it regularly, but she plans runs around her life now instead of the other way around.
She and Jack run together often; it’s actually one of the first things they bonded over when they first met. Their second date ever was a social 5k in Milwaukee (Jack beat her, but in her defense it was 98° that day so she was lucky to have survived it at all). They still go for casual runs or sign up for 5ks to do together all the time, and they’ve talked a lot of their friends into running with them.. Two of their good friends always run the Lucky Leprechaun 7k in Wauwatosa in March with them, and they ended up doing a 10k with them in April last year. They don’t really take it too seriously anymore and enjoy it as something social to do, so they’re always inviting new people to sign up with them.
