Rocket City 5K: Wendy Lillystone Runs Away from the F25-29 Field

• Lillystone wins by 2:47, finishing in 26:37 at an 8:34/mi pace — the clearest margin at the top of the F25-29 group.
• Podium separated by just 41 seconds: Courtney Middle (29:24) and Elizabeth Feick (30:05) battled closely for 2nd and 3rd.
• Tight cluster in the 10s: five runners — Modlin, Mulholland, Huguley, Hammond — finished within 1:32 of each other from 4th through 7th.
• 25 finishers represented the F25-29 age group on a mild December morning in Huntsville.

Wendy Lillystone, making the trip down from Littleton, Colorado, was in a different race entirely. Her 26:37 — nearly three minutes clear of the field — set the tone from the front, and her 8:34/mi average was a full 54 seconds per mile faster than the runner-up. On a comfortable 59°F morning with a light breeze, conditions were as good as a December race in Alabama gets, and Lillystone made full use of them.

Behind her, fellow Colorado native Courtney Middle (Broomfield) claimed 2nd in 29:24, with Huntsville local Elizabeth Feick pressing hard to finish 3rd in 30:05 — just 41 seconds back. That gap between 2nd and 3rd was the tightest on the podium, and Feick's 9:41/mi pace showed she wasn't giving Middle any comfort in the closing stretch.

The race for 4th through 7th turned into its own compelling subplot. Sarah Modlin (30:55), Rebecca Mulholland (31:18), Bria Huguley (31:32), and Sara Hammond (32:27) were all locked within 1:32 of one another, each running between 9:57 and 10:27 per mile. Three of those four — Mulholland, Huguley, and Hammond — are Huntsville locals, giving the home crowd plenty to cheer in the middle of the pack.

Further back, a five-way logjam formed around the 34-minute mark: Bethany Nichols (33:52), Regular Share (34:02), Emily Mormile (34:08), Amber Hammonds (34:08), and Jessica Patterson (34:17) all finished within 25 seconds of each other. Mormile and Hammonds crossed in the same displayed time, with the places confirming Mormile edged ahead by the slimmest of margins. All 25 finishers made it to the line, capping a well-populated F25-29 showing at Rocket City.