Rocket City F20-24: Billington dominates as Rose storms home

• Katie Billington (Huntsville, AL) wins the F20-24 age group in 3:27:00 (7:54/mi), posting the 11th-fastest women's split on the Half→31K stretch.
• Hannah Rose ran the 25th-fastest women's closing split (31K→Finish), climbing from 48th to 27th among women in the back half to finish 2nd in 3:45:24.
• A 50-minute gap separates 2nd from 3rd — Rose's 3:45:24 to Anuska Narayanan's 3:55:34 — with the top three all Rocket City locals or near-neighbors.
• Nine women finished the F20-24 age group, spanning a range from 3:27:00 to 5:54:13.

Katie Billington made her home city proud. The 23-year-old Huntsville native controlled the F20-24 age group from wire to wire, running a steady 7:54/mi to finish in 3:27:00 — nearly 18 minutes clear of the field. She moved as high as 12th among all women at the 31K mark, and her Half→31K split ranked 11th-fastest in the entire women's field, a sign she was genuinely racing, not just surviving. On a humid December morning — 85% humidity is no gift even at 60°F — that kind of sustained pace is worth noting.

Hannah Rose of Chesterfield, MO, told a very different story. She was sitting 48th among women at the 10K mark, a position that might have worried onlookers, but she spent the rest of the race moving forward. By the halfway point she was 41st, then 37th at 31K, and she closed with the 25th-fastest women's split from 31K to the finish — a genuine late surge that carried her to 2nd in F20-24 in 3:45:24. That 8:36/mi average doesn't capture how much faster she was running at the end than the beginning.

Anuska Narayanan, also of Huntsville, rounded out the podium in 3:55:34 (8:59/mi), though her race moved in the opposite direction from Rose's — she held 34th among women through the half before slipping to 47th by the finish. Nicolette Patrick (4:07:29) and Meredith Parks (4:14:48) claimed 4th and 5th respectively, while Amelia Harrison rounded out the top six in 4:20:35. Emma King (5:10:34), Maggie Graham (5:16:58), and Victoria Varnado (5:54:13) completed the nine-woman field.