Jonny’s 19th birthday is today and we got to see him on his birthday down in Oxford, OH at the Red Hawk Rumble invitational where Miami University Red Hawks hosted the Kent State University Golden Flashes. It was unusually hot for the end of September as the temps were in the low 80’s and the humidity was 82%, not an ideal day for the runners. They were originally going to race after noon when the temps were going to be approaching 90 degrees but the coaches decided to bump up the schedule almost 2 hours so the kids could compete when it wasn’t going to be as hot. This meant that Nikki and I had to hustle to get there as we were planning on arriving at 11:00 and now they were racing at 10:30. We pulled into the parking lot and made it to the start line as the official was ready to start the race.
This was Jonny’s first 8K race as the last race was reduced to a 5K due to weather up in Akron. After a the first 200 meters he was near the back of the pack, but settled into a good rhythm and started to advance his position shortly after that, Jonny ended up 21st out of the field of 44 runners. Due to the temps and humidity 8 runners were not able to finish the race. Of the 10 Kent State runners Jonny finish 6th with a time of 27:36.4.
After the race it looked like he jumped in a pool with his clothes on! He was a sweaty mess. Just like high school he went around and congratulated everyone for doing well in a tough race in harsh conditions.
We only got to spend about an hour with him before they were preparing to load up the school vans and head back to Kent State on the opposite corner of the state. It was good to see him and watch him compete again and display his sportsmanship after the race.
The official results can be found here at crossroads timing.
Jonny after running an 8K in the heat and humidity at Miami University.
Here is the video I was able to get of the race. You could see most of the course which was great, but when zoomed in so far, I really need a stabilizing stick for my video camera.
The track team took their team photo this last week as well.
2018 Kent State Men’s Track Team