Atmore native Alan Ash was just looking for a big race to run in Mississippi while he was away from home training for Teach for America.

He found the 5K Watermelon Classic in Jackson, a race with about 1,500 participants.

“I knew it would be big,” he said. “It was a good level of competition.”

The level of competition didn’t slow the 22-year-old down as he won the race with a time of 16:02.

A runner since the age of 5, Ash normally competes in a July 4 holiday race in Pensacola as a family tradition, but wanted to find something closer to Cleveland, Miss. where he was training for TFA.

“It’s been a part of me,” Ash said of running. “I wanted to continue that to give some balance to my life. I wanted to stay in shape.”

He comes by his running ability honestly, his father, also named Alan was a cross country coach. His mother is Dale Ash.

Ash in May graduated from Vanderbilt University, where he was a walk-on for the cross country team and majored in the business-oriented field of human organizational development.

In April he competed in a half-marathon in Nashville and finished second.

“It was the first time I was racing (a half marathon) seriously,” he said.

He averaged 5:35 per mile in the 13-mile contest.

Ash is home this week with his eyes set for qualifying for the Boston Marathon next year. To do that he must be able to finish a qualifying race in less than three hours and five minutes in September.

“This is an important week,” he said as he’s taking a break from TFA training. “I need to run 85 to 90 miles this week and start pacing myself for longer runs. I need to be building up my mileage.”