ASHLAND —
When Jacob Heyerly crossed the finish line of the annual Summer Motion 10K race Saturday morning, he had an odd look on his face.
It wasn’t one of pain or exhaustion, but rather a look of surprise and excitement as he was the first to finish the race that winds through downtown Ashland before finishing in front of the Boyd County Public Library.
“I am surprised, really,” the 15 year-old said. “My goals coming in weren’t very good. I just wanted to finish around 38 or 39 minutes, so I went out kind of slow.”
Heyerly’s actual time was much faster than he anticipated, finishing in 37:32, which was about 15 seconds ahead of second place finisher Jon Renneker.
Heyerly, a Russell student, said he has won smaller road races, but nothing on the scale of the Summer Motion event, which featured 167 runners this year.
It was Renneker who Heyerly used to pace himself early in the race, before making his move around the four-mile mark.
“I ran with Jon and that really helped pace me,” Heyerly said. “When I noticed that I was getting closer and closer to the lead, I just decided I was going to go for it.”
After taking the lead from Jonathan Blatt, who went on tofinish fifth, Heyerly extended his lead before holding off Renneker on the ever-difficult stretch across the bridge.
“When I hit the bridge, I was thinking if I hit it really hard maybe I can lose him and get a big gap,” said the Red Devil cross country runner. “On the way down, I was just trying to finish hard.”
While Heyerly wanted to finish hard, Huntington resident Blake Bushell took the field out in a blistering pace and opened up a considerable lead by the two-mile mark. But his lead was short-lived as he was forced to stop momentarily with what looked to be a cramp.
While the 8 a.m. start did keep runners out of the heat of the day, it was still 70 degrees at start time, up 10 to 12 degrees from normal.
Sasha Stucker, the winner of the women’s race, said running and living in Alabama has its advantages, especially when it comes to dealing with the heat.
“Living in Alabama, it is really hot,” the Ashland native said. “So today was pretty nice.”
The 28 year-old’s time was pretty nice as well. She finished with a personal-best 42:51. Missy Taylor was the second woman to cross the finish line just behind Stucker.
Stucker made the trip home from Alabama specifically to run the race and keep tradition.
“It is just a tradition,” she said. “I have been running this race for several years now. Ashland does the best Fourth of July celebration anywhere around, so why not come home for it?”
Stucker was not the only former area resident to make the pilgrimage home to run in one of the area’s most popular races. Mark White, who now resides in Pennsylvania, has made the trip home every year for the past three years to participate.
“I grew up here and me and my buddies have run this race since high school, and we still meet up and run it almost every summer,” White, now 34, said. “It’s just a fun race and the course is pretty much the same as it always been.”
White added that how well the race is run is a big draw for him every year.
“Ashland is a great city and this is a great race,” he said. “It is really run well and Lynn and Jay Hutchinson knock it out of the park every year.”
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Russell athlete edges former Ashland star in Summer Motion 10K
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