An overall win and course record at Mount Hood for Michelle Buncke

By Henry Howard

Michelle Buncke is making up for lost time.

The longtime soccer player says the sport burned her out so she walked on to the cross-country team at Williams College, a Division III school in Massachusetts.

“I had a very humble beginning as I was the slowest person on my cross-country team my first year,” she recalls. “I really didn't know anything about running or training, but learned a lot over my four years. It was somewhat of a low-key, low-stress environment, so I left college still loving running and continued running after that.”

From there she segued to trail running, progressed to the marathon distance and has blossomed since. In July, she won and set the course record at Mount Hood, a 50-miler in Oregon, with a time of 6:39:08.

Her path to trails and podiums was inspired by Courtney Dauwalter, who has helped put women’s trail and ultra racing on the map. Like Dauwalter, Buncke has always favored longer training runs.

“My favorite day of the week for training was always our Sunday long run,” she says. “That was just when Courtney Dauwalter was becoming a big thing on the scene. I was a huge Courtney Dauwalter fan when I was in college. She inspired me to start thinking about doing more long distance trail running.”

That led to Buncke’s move out west.

‘A great place to trail run’

“I got really infatuated with the idea of going to Colorado when I was in college,” she says. “So I moved to Boulder, Colo., pretty much the day after I graduated college without a huge plan behind that idea. I thought Colorado and the Rocky Mountains were just a great place to trail run.”

After two years, she headed to Oregon for medical school where she is studying otolaryngology — better known as ear, nose and throat surgery. Now, she is a resident physician at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

“Sometimes I feel like I live two alternate lives because I have this identity as a runner and devote a lot of time to that, but pretty much the biggest aspect of my life right now is my second year of ear, nose and throat surgical residency,” she explains, saying she averages about 70 to 80 hours of working over six days. “I stayed here to start my residency last year. I work every day in the hospital as a resident physician. It's a huge time commitment and it's definitely a huge passion of mine. It takes a lot of time, a lot of schooling to get here, four years of college and then four years of medical school and then it'll be five years of residency before I finish my training at the end. But I so far have really relied on the balance between running and medicine to keep me sane in both regards.”

Running allows her time to de-stress.

“I definitely rely on running as an outlet to decompress from the stress of work and it's kind of like my meditation time,” she says. “I also think having medicine and a very demanding and rewarding and fulfilling job helps keep running into perspective in that I realize that it's a huge privilege to be able to run these distances and have the ability to race and whatnot and knowing that that is a privilege and taking care of a lot of sick patients in the hospital, it really keeps running into perspective and keeps the joy in running and helps me not get as burnt out or take it too seriously.”

From 83rd on wait list to starting line

The Mount Hood race had been on Buncke’s radar for a while. Once she received her work schedule and found out she had the race weekend off, she signed up and was 83rd on the wait list.

“I was really not hopeful that I was going to get off the wait list, but about a week before the race, the wait list started moving really quickly,” she says. Nine days out, just before the wait list closed, she received the email offer she’d been hoping for and immediately signed up.

“I knew I had some good fitness because I had been training in the spring for the Gorge 100 that I actually wasn't able to race, so I did the Wildwood FKT, which is a very popular trail here in Portland,” she says. “I knew I had some fitness from that training that I could easily translate to the race. I was excited to get off the wait list.”

But she was apprehensive about her work schedule. Even though she had the weekend off, she worked a 24-hour shift, which ended roughly 48 hours before the start of the race.

“I wasn't really sure how I was going to recover because I've never raced after doing a 24-hour shift in a hospital,” she says. “This is going to be an experiment and we're going to see how this goes."

Buncke trains with Keely Henninger, who held the course record since 2017, who encouraged her to go after it.

“I had the course record in the back of my head going into the race with the big caveat that I may start the race and then just feel awful from having to work that shift earlier in the week, but the race started and I felt decently good,” she says. “I started off with my usual strategy of racing conservatively, so I was in the back of the front pack for the first few miles.”

Buncke kept looking at her watch and realized the pace up front was going to be too slow to hit course record. “If I want to go for the course record, I got to make a move sooner rather than later."

She pushed hard, made up some time on the course record and took over first place by mile 4. The aid station at mile 26 was the last time runners saw their crew.

“I was in the zone, really excited about my momentum and I just ran straight through that aid station without thinking about stopping to refill my water or anything. I'm in the zone. I'm hitting good momentum. I'm just going to keep going. And then I ended up running out of water.”

Luckily for Buncke, the aid stations were in close proximity. Even though her pace dropped a bit, she was able to refill her water bottle.

“I definitely lost some time on that chunk because I ran out of water and then also the temperatures were getting a little higher,” she recalls. “I definitely wasn't that heat acclimated for the race, but was able to hang on to the course record and maintain being in first.”

The race is two out-and-backs. After she made the final turnaround, she started coming across other racers who were friends and training partners. “That really inspired me to keep up my pace to maintain my lead. They were super supportive of me trying to go after the course record and whatnot. So that definitely gave me an extra pep in my step to push the last 10 miles a little bit more.”

Fighting impostor syndrome

Up next for Buncke is the Kodiak 100K on Oct. 12.

With an overall victory and a course record, Buncke is contributing to the growing momentum of involving more women in trail and ultra running.

“Since I first started trail running, I feel like I've seen so much progress in female representation in the sport,” she says. “There's still so much room for improvement. Representation really matters and putting female athlete stories on the forefront equal to that of men's stories, whether in racing or otherwise, to give them a platform to tell them about their stories because, like you're saying, a lot of young women get into the sport by looking at other role models within the sport. The more female role models we have that show you can be competitive in athletics among other things is really crucial to keep encouraging more women to get into the sport.”

Often the media focus on the male athletes, the men’s race and other aspects that contribute to elite women runners dealing with impostor syndrome. But every course record, every overall win, by a woman runner chips away at the stigma.

“I think as women in athletics, and in a lot of other aspects of life, we can be plagued by self-doubt or impostor syndrome,” she says. “For me personally, there's always been a lot of self-doubt in racing regarding, ‘What can I accomplish?’ But I think the biggest takeaway I learned from that race is to not be afraid to take a risk and to just go out and push yourself. The worst case is that you fail, and that's not horrible. I think what I took away is that to just believe in yourself and try not to let self-doubt hold you back because I think we can often be our worst enemy.”

Speed drill

Name: Michelle Buncke 

Hometown: Portland, Oregon

Number of years running: 10

How many miles a week do you typically run: “70 to 100 miles, totally depends on vert and my work schedule!” 

Point of pride: “I am a surgical resident at Oregon Health and Science University, and take pride in balancing a very demanding professional life while also continuing to pursue competitive running. I’m very passionate about supporting and encouraging women to pursue their ambitions, whether athletically or professionally.” 

Favorite race distance: 100K

Favorite pre-race or training food/drink: “Pizza for pre race!”

Favorite piece of gear: “Sports bra with cell phone pocket in the back — it’s so helpful!”

Who inspires you: “My training pals Keely Henninger, Rachel Drake and Leah Yingling who are not only amazing athletes, but also very successful in their professional careers.” 

Favorite or inspirational song to run to: “Move along,” by All American Rejects. 

Favorite or inspirational mantra/phrase: “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”

Where can other runners connect or follow you:

• Instagram: @mbuncke

• Strava: mbuncke