Rocket City 10K — F35-39: Hartman edges a five-second thriller at the front

• Angela Hartman (Atlanta, GA) wins F35-39 in 50:14 (8:05/mi), holding off a relentless challenge from the very end.
• Sarah Van Wagenen (Madison, AL) finishes 2nd in 50:19 — just five seconds back after 6.2 miles in 29°F cold.
• Kristine Johns (Madison, AL) rounds out the podium in 53:57 (8:41/mi), more than three and a half minutes clear of 4th.
• 36 women finished F35-39, with Amanda Thrift (Huntsville, AL) 20th in 1:09:30 marking the edge of the individually listed field.

The headline story in the F35-39 age group is as tight as it gets: Angela Hartman crossed in 50:14 to claim the win, with Sarah Van Wagenen right on her heels at 50:19. Five seconds over 6.2 miles — that's a margin of less than a second per mile separating first from second. In 29°F temperatures with a 16 mph wind biting through Huntsville, both women pushed an 8:05–8:06/mi pace that put them well clear of the rest of the field. Hartman, making the trip down from Atlanta, held on just enough.

Behind them, Kristine Johns ran a composed 8:41/mi to finish 3rd in 53:57 — a gap of over three and a half minutes to Van Wagenen, which tells you how dominant the top two were. Johns, like Van Wagenen, is a Madison local, giving that city two of the three podium spots. The battle for 4th through 6th was its own subplot: Lia Lombardo (58:45), Anna Brawner (59:06), and Reina Lopez (59:12) were separated by just 27 seconds across three runners — a tight cluster all pushing the 9:27–9:32/mi range.

Further back, Heather Woods and Stephanie Isbell both clocked 1:00:49 at 9:47/mi, with the timing mat separating their places by a sliver that the displayed time can't capture — Woods edges 7th, Isbell takes 8th. The rest of the individually listed field stretched from Nicole Wilcox's 1:02:08 in 9th to Amanda Thrift's 1:09:30 in 20th, a reminder of how broad the F35-39 field was on a cold December morning in Huntsville.