Rocket City 10K — F45-49: Taylor Runs Away With It

• Jeanne Taylor won the F45-49 group in 47:28 (7:38/mi), finishing nearly 6 minutes and 46 seconds clear of second place — the widest margin on the podium.
• Stacy Gagne claimed second in 54:14, with Melinda Hyatt just 2:27 behind her in third at 56:41.
• Fourth through sixth were tightly grouped in relative terms — Shawna Wentlandt (58:36), Laura Koontz (1:08:16), and Tifney Clifton (1:11:51) — spanning about 13 minutes across that stretch.
• Three runners — Kathy Youngren, Ellen Parker, and Bridget Price — finished within a 47-second window (1:24:10 to 1:24:57), making places 8 through 10 the tightest cluster of the day.

Jeanne Taylor, 49, from Huntsville, made this race look like a training run. Her 7:38-per-mile pace through warm, humid, and breezy December conditions — 70°F, 76% humidity, and a 17 mph wind — was in a different class from everyone else in the F45-49 group. No one came close to testing her; she crossed the line nearly seven minutes ahead of Stacy Gagne, a margin that speaks for itself.

Behind Taylor, Gagne and Hyatt ran a clean podium. Gagne's 54:14 held off Hyatt's 56:41 comfortably enough, but Hyatt's 9:07 pace was solid in its own right. Shawna Wentlandt, making the trip from Alexandria, Virginia, finished a respectable fourth at 58:36 — the only finisher in the top four from outside Alabama.

The race's most compelling subplot unfolded in the back half of the field, where Youngren, Parker, and Price arrived within 47 seconds of each other after more than 84 minutes of running. Youngren edged Parker by 19 seconds, and Parker held off Price by another 28. All three finished in the 13:33–13:40 per-mile range, a testament to how evenly matched that trio was on the day. Stephanie Clayton closed out the 13-woman group in 1:42:06, completing a field that stretched across nearly 55 minutes from first to last.