M50-54: Larry Smart Runs Away With It

• Larry Smart won the M50-54 age group in 48:48 (7:51/mi) — nearly 8 minutes clear of 2nd-place Duane Benedict (56:46).
• Positions 2 through 7 were separated by just 2:34 across the span of 56:46 to 59:47 — six men within reach of each other.
• Brandt Estes, Stephen St John, and Britt Blankenship finished 3rd through 5th within a tight 57-second window (57:15 to 58:12).
• All 12 finishers completed the race, ranging from Smart's 48:48 down to Chris Looney's 1:19:52.

On a warm, breezy December morning in Huntsville — 70°F with 17 mph winds and thick humidity that made the air feel anything but December — Larry Smart made the M50-54 age group look like a one-man time trial. The 54-year-old from Dunedin, Florida, crossed in 48:48 at a 7:51-per-mile clip, a margin so commanding that he was done and cooling down while the rest of the field still had the better part of a mile to run. That nearly 8-minute gap over runner-up Duane Benedict isn't a race result — it's a statement.

Behind Smart, the real competition was a tightly packed six-man battle for the remaining podium spots and beyond. Benedict (56:46) held 2nd, with Brandt Estes (57:15) and Stephen St John (57:54) pressing close behind. Britt Blankenship rounded out the top five in 58:12 — just 57 seconds behind Estes — and William Fisher (59:20) and Wendell Ohern (59:47) kept the pressure on through 7th. Six finishers in under three minutes of racing: that's a genuine midpack dogfight worth savoring.

The back half of the field stretched out from Forrest Bridges' 1:02:04 through to Chris Looney's 1:19:52, with Steve Greenhalgh — traveling all the way from Church Stretton, England — checking in 10th in 1:06:17. All 12 men in the M50-54 age group finished, which on a muggy, wind-buffeted day in Alabama is its own kind of accomplishment.