Rocket City Half Marathon: Kleinhagen dominates the F0-14 age group

• Alison Kleinhagen won the F0-14 age group in 1:43:16 (7:53/mi), finishing 9th among all women.
• Kleinhagen posted the 6th-fastest women's split on the 8M→Finish stretch, surging from 12th to 9th among women in the back half.
• Meredith Walker took 2nd in 2:11:18 — a 28-minute gap back from Kleinhagen, but she too gained ground late, moving from 141st to 122nd among women on that final stretch.
• Debra Smith completed the three-finisher F0-14 field in 2:44:16, holding steady through the finish.

Just three runners made up the F0-14 field at the 2024 Rocket City Marathon Half Marathon, but Alison Kleinhagen of Blue Springs, MO made the group impossible to ignore. Running a 7:53/mi average in 59°F overcast conditions, she crossed in 1:43:16 — a performance that placed her 9th among all women in the race. That's not a quiet age-group win; that's a statement.

What made Kleinhagen's run especially sharp was her closing stretch. From the 8-mile mark to the finish, she posted the 6th-fastest women's split in the entire field, moving up three spots in the women's standings in the process. She didn't just hold pace — she accelerated when it counted.

Meredith Walker of Huntsville, AL claimed 2nd in the F0-14 group in 2:11:18, running 10:01/mi. The gap to Kleinhagen was a substantial 28 minutes, but Walker also found another gear late, climbing 19 spots among women on the 8M→Finish segment to finish 122nd among women. Debra Smith of Boonville, IN rounded out the age group in 2:44:16 (12:32/mi), finishing 331st among women and completing a small but determined field on a mild December morning in Huntsville.