Rocket City 5K — F35-39: Evans Laps the Field

• Rachel Evans won the F35-39 group in 24:27 (7:52/mi) — more than 5 minutes 24 seconds clear of 2nd place.
• The podium was decided early: Evans (24:27), Stacy Pierce (29:51), and Danielle Dutcher (31:24) each separated by roughly 90 seconds.
• Places 5 through 9 were tightly bunched: Jazmin Alducin (32:27), Brittany England (32:46), Emily Whittington (33:47), Natalia Rasputina (34:01), and Jessica Interiano (34:09) — all five within a two-minute window.
• Two finishers, Brittany Nicole Thompson (4th, 9:32:05) and Erika Phillips (12th, 9:41:15), recorded times well outside the main field, suggesting a very different kind of effort on the course.

Rachel Evans made the F35-39 race her own from the moment the clock started. Her 7:52/mi average over 5K was in a different category entirely — the gap back to runner-up Stacy Pierce stretched to more than five and a half minutes, a margin that speaks to how decisively Evans separated herself. Pierce, a Huntsville local, held second comfortably, finishing in 29:51, with Danielle Dutcher of Huntsville taking the final podium spot in 31:24.

The real competition played out in the chase pack behind them. Five women — Alducin, England, Whittington, Rasputina, and Interiano — ran essentially shoulder to shoulder from 5th through 9th, compressing into just 1 minute and 42 seconds of racing. England made the trip from Columbus, Indiana worthwhile with a 10:33/mi effort; Interiano traveled from Water Valley, Mississippi to slot in 9th at 34:09.

Beyond the top ten, the field spread across a wide range of finishing times, with the final six finishers ranging from 46:55 to 54:14 — a reminder that the F35-39 group drew competitors with very different goals on a mild December morning in Huntsville. Heather Carter of Winter Garden, Florida closed things out in 54:14, completing a group of 20 that spanned nearly 30 minutes of racing from front to back.