Rocket City Marathon M65-69: Kenneth Roth Runs Away from the Field

• Kenneth Roth (age 66, Covington, KY) won M65-69 in 3:30:08 — an 8:01/mi average — finishing more than 24 minutes ahead of runner-up Jim Sowders.
• Roth was a relentless climber through the men's field, moving from 171st to 125th among men across the four tracked checkpoints.
• Spots 3 and 4 were the race's tightest battle: Bob Engel (4:13:47) edged David Hergenroeder (4:14:21) by just 34 seconds across 26.2 miles.
• The M65-69 group spanned nearly 2 hours 50 minutes from first to last, with Michael Malone (6:19:51) closing out the field at a steady 14:29/mi.

Warm, humid, and windy conditions — 70°F, 76% humidity, and a 17 mph wind — made for a tough December day in Huntsville, and the M65-69 group felt every bit of it. Against that backdrop, Roth's 3:30:08 stands out sharply. He didn't just win; he was tracking down runners across the entire men's field throughout the race, arriving at the finish as one of the stronger performances of the day regardless of age.

Jim Sowders (3:55:06) held second comfortably in the end, but his race told a different story in real time. While Roth was climbing through the men's field, Sowders was drifting the other direction — moving from 221st among men at 10K all the way back to 257th by the finish, suggesting the conditions or the distance caught up with him in the second half.

The real drama unfolded just behind Sowders, where Bob Engel (Cincinnati, OH) and David Hergenroeder (Madison, AL) ran a near-identical race. Engel, age 68, held off Hergenroeder, age 66, by just 34 seconds — both men clocking essentially a 9:41–9:42 pace over the full marathon. Both were also strong finishers relative to where they stood at 31K, each climbing through the men's field in the final stretch.

Dan Fulkerson, Gerald Tarlton, and Bruce Carter filled out the middle of the group between 4:38 and 4:49, while Earl Strong (5:15:40) and hometown runner Michael Malone (6:19:51) brought it home to complete all ten finishers in M65-69.