Peyton Lunsford never had a shortage of great coaches around her while establishing herself as one of the top runners in eastern Kentucky.
Harlan County coach Ryan Vitatoe was a former star runner at Evarts and then Lindsey Wilson and enjoyed tremendous success in leading the HCHS program since it began in 2008.
Lunsford’s mom, Paige, was also a star runner at Evarts going back to her middle school days before going on to run at the University of the Cumberlands.
There was one voice, however, that Peyton always listened for during meets in past seasons. Her grandfather, Bob Howard, started coaching in the 1980s when he started the cross country program at Evarts High School and knew the sport as well as anyone. He also knew what made his granddaughter tick, especially when it came to running.
When Howard died last spring, Lunsford lost both a grandfather and a mentor. He was always on the course at strategical points in past years to both coach and motivate.
Vitatoe came up with the idea to name a race in honor of his former coach and Peyton was the early favorite to win on the girls side. She did just that on Saturday with her grandfather traveling along in her mind as she traversed the familiar HCHS course.
“Winning the first Bob Howard Memorial Invitational was a very special moment to me,” Lunsford said. “My grandad was always there to support me every step of the way. It has been a hard season without him. Running this race was very mentally challenging, but I constantly asked myself what would he tell me at that moment. He would have told me to just run, and that’s exactly what I did.”