Jacob White's long golden locks glimmered underneath the Colorado sun.
He cruised over the grassy terrain at the Stenger Soccer Complex, passing the mile marker right around five minutes. There was a vast sea of green space behind him, as the Dakota Ridge senior made it known from the opening strides that he intended on soloing at the Durden Invitational Friday morning.
While it wasn't noticeable from the sidelines of the course, White was running on minimal sleep.
"I had a work shift that went until 10," he explained. "And I had math homework on top of that when I got home."
White capped off his long day by downing a bottle of beet juice and half-a-loaf of bread. He didn't get to bed until midnight.
"You should never do that before a race," White said of the minimal sleep. "I'm just happy I was able to get out and run a decent race."
And decent was perhaps an understatement - White ran on over the soggy course like clockwork, ticking off miles just over five minutes while his chasers scrambled for places behind him.
With a mile to go he held a considerable lead - well over half-a-minute, and it only grew.
By the time he reached the finish line some 15:55 after launching off the starting line, his lead was just over 50 seconds.
While victory seemed inevitable for White, the race for second was decided in the final mile.
James Ramey and Ethan Straub battled into the final third of Friday morning's race, and Ramey came out on top of this race.
The Ralson Valley senior kicked hard to finish third in 16:46, while Straub was eight seconds back in 16:54.
And then the team race got hot.
With Dakota Ridge pumping two into the top three, it was up to Ralston Valley to respond - and they did.
Jack Donze and Ethan Grolnic came in fourth and fifth to lean the team race in their favor.
Ralson Valley went on to put four in the top nine, and five in the top 13, which gave them a two-point victory over Dakota Ridge, who had four in the top 11, and five in the top 12.
The final tally read 33-35 in favor of Ralston Valley. Arvada West took third with 55 points.