Rocket City 5K — M20-24: Blankenhorn runs away with it

• Justin Blankenhorn won the M20-24 age group in 20:30 at a 6:36/mi pace — nearly 19 minutes clear of 2nd place.
• The gap from 1st to 3rd spanned 28 minutes and 2 seconds across just three finishers.
• Kody Wilder took 2nd in 39:31 (12:43/mi), finishing nearly 9 minutes ahead of Richard Oehrlein's 48:32 (15:37/mi).

Justin Blankenhorn made the M20-24 race his own from the gun. The 24-year-old Huntsville local crossed in 20:30 — a 6:36/mi clip that, on a warm, breezy December morning (70°F, 17 mph winds, 76% humidity), represents a genuinely sharp effort over 3.1 miles. There was no drama at the front; the outcome was settled well before the finish line.

Behind him, the real story was the 19-minute chasm separating 1st from 2nd. Kody Wilder of Brownsboro claimed the runner-up spot in 39:31, working at a 12:43/mi pace through the same sticky conditions. Richard Oehrlein, the youngest of the three at 20 and traveling from Helena, rounded out the age group in 48:32 — a 15:37/mi average that still represents a finish in a field where plenty of people never make the start line.

With only three finishers in M20-24, every position mattered, and each man earned his place on the board. Blankenhorn's win was commanding; the margins between all three were wide enough that no position was ever seriously in doubt on this day.