M40-44: Stuart Lamp Runs Away with It in Huntsville

• Stuart Lamp won the M40-44 group in 1:16:03 (5:48/mi), finishing more than 18 minutes clear of runner-up Bret Waddell.
• Waddell's 1:34:32 (7:13/mi) held off Alexander Madrigal's 1:37:18 by 2:46 for second place.
• Places 4 and 5 were decided by just 10 seconds: Cole Morrison (1:50:43) edged Matt McDill (1:50:53).
• Wesley Whittemore (10th, 1:56:29) and Daniel Waldrop (9th, 1:56:30) finished one second apart — Whittemore crossed the line ahead despite the near-identical clock times.

Stuart Lamp didn't just win the M40-44 group — he lapped the field in time. His 1:16:03 at 5:48 per mile was a performance in a different stratosphere from everyone else in the 41-man field, and his closing leg told the same story: he posted the 4th-fastest 8M-to-Finish split among all men in the race. At 41, racing in mild 59°F conditions in Huntsville, Lamp turned in the kind of number that makes the rest of the leaderboard look like a different event.

Behind him, Bret Waddell (40, Tuscumbia) ran a clean 1:34:32 to secure second, gaining a place on the men's field in the back half of the race. Alexander Madrigal (42, Suwanee, GA) rounded out the podium in 1:37:18, though he conceded two spots in the men's field from the 8-mile mark to the finish — a slight fade that Waddell did not match.

The real drama in the M40-44 group played out around the fourth and fifth spots. Cole Morrison and Matt McDill ran side by side through most of the course and finished within 10 seconds of each other — 1:50:43 and 1:50:53 respectively — with Michael Oliver (1:51:23) just 30 seconds further back to make it a tight cluster from 4th through 6th. Further down, the Corinth, MS duo of Wesley Whittemore and Daniel Waldrop crossed the line in 9th and 10th with identical displayed times of 1:56:29 and 1:56:30 — Whittemore edging ahead by the thinnest of margins.