When fourth-year student Jordann Dhuse crossed the finish line at the 2017 UMKC School of Medicine 5K, she wondered what all the fuss was about.
“I was shocked when I realized I had won my division,” said Dhuse, first among the 930 women in the June 2 race.
“I haven’t run all that many races,” said Dhuse, who enjoyed other sports in high school but took up running just a few years ago. “I had won my age group before, but not my division.”
Dhuse runs more “as a way to decompress from studying” than to be competitive, she said. But she does push herself to improve, and her time in this year’s 5K, 23:11, was almost two and a half minutes better than a year ago, when she placed 30th in the women’s division.
“I try to fit in a run most days, three miles if I’m lucky,” she said, and often can be seen running near the school, or walking her dog, Milo.
“He’s a long-haired chihuahua, so he doesn’t run with me,” she said. “But I let him wear my race medal. I think it weighs more than he does.”
It was the fourth year that the 5K took place the Friday evening before the Hospital Hill 10K and Marathon. The move was made to make the shorter race more family friendly, and it draws parents pushing strollers, along with many teams from various workplaces and non-profits.
“I like the atmosphere of this race,” said Dhuse. “You get families, people in town for the weekend, different groups.”
Dhuse is from the Chicago area and came to UMKC after earning a bachelor’s degree in health science at the University of Missouri.
“I followed my brother, Kyle, to Columbia,” she said. “He’s a year older and fell in love with the campus.”
Then Dhuse decided to go on for a medical degree and was happy she was accepted at UMKC.
“I was attracted by the program’s whole approach, especially the docent system,” she said. “I love being on a team.”
Many of her Gold 3 docent mates are different from her in at least one respect: “I’m interested in emergency medicine, and most of them are interested in internal or family medicine. But we support each other.”
