Rocket City Marathon F50-54: Esther Godfrey Runs Down the Field

• Godfrey wins in 3:44:04 (8:33/mi), more than eight minutes clear of runner-up Faith Liebl's 3:52:15.
• Anisia Tellefsen's early charge: she moved from 33rd to 37th among women through 10K but held a top-40 women's split on the 10K–half segment before fading to 3rd in the age group by the finish.
• Tight battle for 7th–8th: Kaypee Porter (4:22:24) and Amy Broome (4:22:51) were separated by just 27 seconds across 26.2 miles.
• 29 finishers completed the F50-54 race on a warm, humid December day — 70°F with 17 mph winds making for demanding conditions.

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Esther Godfrey of Asheville put together a controlled, progressive race to claim the F50-54 title. Running 8:33/mi, she moved steadily through the women's field — from 59th among women at the first checkpoint to 51st by the finish — suggesting a well-managed effort rather than an early blowout. Her 49th-fastest women's split on the half-to-31K stretch confirmed she was still pushing hard through the back half, and her 8-minute-11-second margin over Faith Liebl was never seriously threatened.

Liebl (3:52:15, 8:51/mi) held second throughout, though she did slip a few spots among women in the final segment — from 58th to 64th — hinting at some late-race fatigue. Anisia Tellefsen told a different story entirely: the 54-year-old from Spartanburg was the most aggressive early mover in the group, sitting 33rd among women through 10K and posting the 37th-fastest women's split on that 10K-to-half stretch. But the pace caught up with her; she faded from 54th to 72nd among women in the closing miles and crossed in 3:54:19, 27 seconds behind Liebl for third.

Christina Bruner (4:00:25) rounded out the top four, just cracking the four-hour mark, while Eun Kim held a remarkably steady race — barely budging in the women's standings from start to finish — to take fifth in 4:02:07. Further back, the 7th-place battle between Kaypee Porter and Amy Broome was the race's tightest subplot: 27 seconds after 26.2 miles is as close as it gets without a sprint finish. All 29 finishers navigated a genuinely tough December day in Huntsville — warm, windy, and humid in equal measure.