Lakota East High School's Dustin Horter won the Hot Summer Bash in 15:10.22.
It was the opposite of a summer day at the Hilliard Davidson Hot Summer Bash. The rainy and cold day required long sleeves and sweatshirts for everyone to stay warm. Despite the conditions, I was looking forward to race against big state competition in Matt Scrape of Pickerington Central.
The team began our usual 1.5 mile pre-run bundled up in our warm-ups. There was a very sophisticated feel to things with our whole team matching; everyone was in the zone for a good race. We got back to camp and gathered our things to head to the start line where we did our stretches, drills and strides. The team gathered in prayer as we usually do and the race was ready to begin.
The gun blasted and I got off to a good start. I moved right out front with no problems and took on the wind. I felt smooth through the first mile and came through in around 4:45. I was composed in my breathing and my legs felt good. At this point, Matt and I were close together as he was trailing me by ten meters or less. The course took some turns so I tried to accelerate off of them. This helped me build more of a gap between Scrape and I through mile two. I was through the two mile line in around 9:40 and still felt pretty good. The third mile was about maintaining and keeping the distance or expanding the lead. I managed to do this well with my legs still feeling stable, running a faster mile than my second one and getting the hype of the crowd to help me through the rest. I crossed the line in 15:10 with Scrape not too far behind. We waited for people to come through the line and shook hands with our fellow competitors.
All in all the condition of the course was messy due to the rain and previous races but nevertheless, I tried to make the most of it. 15:10 isn't extremely fast but it's what got the job done on that day given the conditions. I'm looking forward to racing at some big meets in the coming weeks; there should be some fast times and great competition to run with.
Dustin Horter battled adverse weather conditions and held off PC's Matt Scrape for the win.