NORTH BRANCH and HORTONVILLE, NY — It started in North Branch and ended four miles down the rambling rural road in Hortonville.

On Saturday, August 24, just before the 90th annual Parade and Field Day for the Hortonville Volunteer Fire Company, the first North Branch-Hortonville Firehouse Race tested the mettle of several dozen runners as they tackled the mostly downhill course.

Alaina Keller, 15, of North Branch, took the gold as she finished in first place overall with a time of 24:13. 

“It feels pretty good,” she said, adding that she started running at the age of six, and next month will be joining the freshman class at Sullivan West.

Her take on the sport of running, and plans for the future?

“It’s great when you push yourself and see what you’ve accomplished,” she said. When it comes to the future? “Getting it done; doing the best you can every day.”

Joel Murns, 47, of Westbrookville, graduated from Jeffersonville-Youngsville High School in 1995.

On Saturday, he finished second overall and first in the men’s division with a time of 26:52.

“For me, it was absolutely amazing,” he said. “I haven’t won a race in over 30 years, and to win this great race, put on by the North Branch Volunteer Fire Department, is just awesome.”

After the race, Janel Budd, 27, of Middletown, posed for pictures with her two-year-old daughter Cheyanne next to one of the local fire departments’ freshly shined fire apparatus a couple of hours before the parade stepped off.

“It was absolutely amazing. The course was very racy, and I think next year is going to be even better with more competitors,” she said. Budd finished sixth overall and came in third place in the female division with a time of 29:32.

T.J. Johnson, a member of the North Branch Volunteer Fire Department, was the primary organizer of the run/walk race, which spanned the distance from the North Branch Firehouse to the Hortonville Firehouse.

“We’re finally getting some new members to join, and the younger members have ideas to put us on the map,” he said. “It will give us a jolt of life, with more events.”