Rocket City Marathon F65-69: Gossman Holds Off Sillivant in a Frigid Huntsville Showdown

• Melissa Gossman won the F65-69 age group in 4:29:52 (10:18/mi), finishing ahead of runner-up Elaine Sillivant by 4 minutes and 17 seconds.
• Elaine Sillivant closed the strongest of the top two, posting the 170th-fastest women's split from 20M to the finish to lock up 2nd in 4:34:09.
• Lisa Nisi claimed 3rd in 5:26:10 (12:26/mi), also finishing strongly with the 324th-fastest women's split on the final stretch.
• Vicki Sue Merry, 68, rounded out the four-woman group in 6:47:17 (15:32/mi), completing a full marathon in 29°F wind-driven conditions — a feat unto itself.

With temperatures locked at 29°F and a 16 mph wind cutting across Huntsville on race morning, the four women of the F65-69 age group faced as tough a December marathon as the calendar can produce. Melissa Gossman of Ormond Beach, FL, set the tone early, sitting in the top half of the women's field through the first half before navigating the middle miles and crossing in 4:29:52 at a steady 10:18/mi — enough to claim the age-group title with a comfortable cushion.

Elaine Sillivant, racing on home turf in Huntsville, ran a different kind of race. She sat well back in the women's field through the first half and at 20 miles, but then came alive on the final stretch, posting the 170th-fastest women's split from 20M to the finish. That closing surge lifted her from 269th among women at the 20-mile mark all the way to 234th at the line — a meaningful charge through a crowded field — though Gossman's earlier lead proved too large to overcome. Sillivant finished 2nd in 4:34:09 (10:27/mi).

Lisa Nisi of Lake Mary, FL, also found another gear late, moving from 414th to 377th among women over the final miles to finish 3rd in 5:26:10. Vicki Sue Merry, the group's eldest at 68 and traveling from Cantonment, FL, finished 4th in 6:47:17 — steadily working through the field across all four segments in conditions that would send most people indoors. All four women finished. In 29°F air with a biting wind, that's the baseline worth noting before anything else.