The lead runner in the MOCH 5K grimaces with effort as he crosses the main road in Ava, Missouri.
The Central High School Kilties Drum and Bugle Corps play for the runners at the finish of the Haley's Hope Hot and Hilly 5K and 10K in Springfield, Missouri. The race is one of the toughest 10K courses around, with constant and extreme elevation changes, and is deliberately held at the hottest and most humid time of the year.
A young runner makes his way up the last slope of the Haley's Hope Hot and Hilly 5K and 10K course before getting to the final stretch, one of the few flat sections of the entire race.