July 4 was Earth’s hottest day on record at the time, but something very cool happened to a family of runners from North Huntingdon.

Five female members of the Dansak family — a mom, three daughters, and an aunt ranging in age from 11 to 48 — brought home a handful of overall and age-group medals, plus a holiday full of memories, from the Hampton Rotary Firecracker 5K in the northern suburbs.

• Anna, 14, was the top female finisher with a time of 21 minutes, 14 seconds, and twin sister Emily (23:50) was third among females.

• Mom, Julie, 48, won her 40-49 age group with a time of 26:26 and Grace, 11, placed second in her 9-11 age group (31:59) and finished ahead of 59 runners.

• Aunt Gina, 42, was sixth in the 40-49 age group in 28:38 and took 54th overall.

The highlight of the day was Anna’s top finish in the 3.1-mile, 126-runner race. She was runner-up among females in last year’s race, losing to a 44-year-old woman by less than four seconds.

“I got passed at the end,” Anna said. “I was really disappointed that I lost, so I wanted to come back and win.”

Julie said the family has competed together in many races over the years, often with husband Dave and older sister Katherine, 19, also among the field.

The Dansaks are regulars at Labor Day races in Western Pennsylvania and the Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot in Latrobe, among other events.

“We do a lot of races,” Julie said. “(The girls) always win their age group, so it was pretty exciting to see Anna win the overall girl.”

Dave, a former high school runner, was the impetus for the running clan.

He has competed in seven marathons and Julie, after giving birth to Katherine, decided to add serious running to an already active lifestyle.

Eventually, Anna wanted to be part of the action. She ran her first 5K as a kindergartner.

“We trained a pretty good amount, and I really liked it because I won an age-group award and I wanted to keep doing it,” Anna said. “I liked the race part of it, where you would see who is ahead of you and see who you could beat.”

Emily and Grace joined the fun a year later; when Emily was in first grade and Grace was a preschooler.

Their aunt, Gina, is also a serious runner.

She is about halfway through her goal of completing a half-marathon (13.1 miles) in every state in the nation.

Julie, who ran in the Pittsburgh Marathon in 2015 and ’17, said race days are “really special” for the family.

“It is so nice to get out and all be together and run,” she said. “It’s so exciting to see how we are going to finish. It’s just fun.”

Anna is likely to win a lot more races in the future.

She and Emily will be freshmen at Norwin in the fall and already are training with the school’s varsity cross country team.

Anna enters ninth grade after being one of the top middle school runners in Western Pennsylvania, and Emily is not far behind.

Anna flashed some of her ability five years ago, when she was the top female finisher in the 2018 Fox’s Pizza Yough River Trail 5K — as a 9-year-old fourth-grader. She beat her dad by 2 seconds and placed 12th overall among 68 runners.

“Anna has always been a runner,” Julie said. “She’s so fast. She loves competition, and she loves challenging herself. She’s very driven, and she’s very committed.”

Anna, who along with Emily, also plays basketball, is training about 40 miles a week to prepare for cross country season.

She said watching her parents compete as a youngster forged her desire to run.

“When I was little, I would see my parents doing marathons and doing all of the training,” she said, “and I kind of just wanted to do what they were doing.”

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