M35-39: Alan Carreno Dominates the Rocket City Half

• Alan Carreno (35, Las Vegas) won M35-39 in 1:13:33 — a 5:37/mi pace that left the field well behind.
• 17-minute gap to 2nd: Eric Thomas clocked 1:30:59, making the margin between 1st and 2nd the largest single gap on the entire M35-39 podium.
• Tyler Craig and Walt Reed battled hard for 3rd: Craig (1:38:08) edged Reed (1:38:23) — just 15 seconds after 13.1 miles.
• Andrew Bothwell and Robert Browning were inseparable at 5th and 6th: both finished at 7:46/mi, with only 8 seconds (1:41:46 vs. 1:41:54) separating them.

Alan Carreno turned the M35-39 race into a solo time trial almost from the gun. Running 5:37 per mile on a mild but breezy Huntsville morning — 59°F and a 9 mph wind — the Las Vegas 35-year-old finished in 1:13:33 and posted the second-fastest split among all men on the 8M-to-Finish stretch. There was no chasing pack; there was just Carreno, and then everyone else.

Eric Thomas, running on home turf in Huntsville, was the clear second-best in the group at 1:30:59 (6:56/mi), moving up four spots in the men's field over the back half to seal the runner-up spot comfortably. The 17-minute gap between him and Carreno tells you everything about how dominant the winner's effort was.

The real drama unfolded in the fight for 3rd. Tyler Craig (Ann Arbor) and Walt Reed (Birmingham) ran nearly identical races — 7:29 and 7:30 per mile respectively — but Craig's 1:38:08 held off Reed's 1:38:23 by just 15 seconds. Reed had actually been running ahead of Craig earlier in the race before fading one spot in the men's field over the final miles, making Craig's 3rd-place finish a late-race reversal worth noting.

Further back, the 5th-place duel between Andrew Bothwell and Robert Browning was the tightest finish of the day in M35-39: both averaged 7:46/mi and crossed within 8 seconds of each other. Among the 53 finishers, the group showed real depth from the podium on down — though one anomalous entry, Mason Overcash at 19th with a listed 10:59:01, suggests a timing irregularity rather than a race result.