Area runners medal in 1A 3,000

DES MOINES — Brutally hot conditions didn’t stop AGWSR’s Aubrie Fisher and Kenna Weaver of West Fork from medaling in the Class 1A 3,000.
 
Fisher was third in 11 minutes, 1.15 seconds while Weaver took sixth after picking off a couple of runners late in 11:25.67.
 
Neither one said they liked running in the kind of weather that greeted them on Thursday, May 16 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
 
“It was a complete battle,” Weaver said. “Definitely, I…most runners prefer running in heat, but I would way rather have it cold than run that. That was really painful. It was the hardest 3,000 I’ve ever run in my life in four years, for sure.”
 
Fisher added, “It was definitely kind of a brutal race, it wasn’t the time I wanted, but I moved up in the placing from last year, so that’s kind of nice.
 
“I’m more of a cold weather person. The heat kind of gets to me sometimes. I never really liked it, kind of partly why I stopped playing softball. It’s definitely harder for me to run in the heat.”
 
Neither has medaled all four years with Weaver dropping out of this race in similar conditions as a freshman. She gutted this one out.
 
“I always get a side ache around the last two laps, so I battled with it all year long,” Weaver said. “That’s never in your favor, but I battled it out and finished it.”
 
Fisher, too, didn’t run the race her freshman year.
 
“I was too stubborn to run it (my freshman year),” Fisher said. “Looking back, it was probably not the right choice, but you live, you learn.
 
“The race was tough because I really didn’t have anyone on my tail to make me sprint. It’s hard to keep pushing yourself to go faster when there is no one next to you.”
 
A little surprised when she was told of her place, she said she thought she was seventh or eighth.
 
“It’s not the time I wanted, but I’ll take it,” Weaver said. It’s a medal, and it means a lot in my last year. I battled through it. All 24 of us did.
 
“It’s one way to end it, I guess.”