Rocket City Marathon 5K — M35-39: Goins dominates with a sub-22 effort

• Theo Goins (39, Madison, AL) won the M35-39 group in 21:31 — a 6:56/mi pace that left the field nearly three minutes behind.
• Michael Buckley finished 2nd in 24:13, with Kyle Wagner a further 1:50 back in 3rd at 26:03.
• Joel Lamberth and Quincy Freeman ran a tight battle for 4th and 5th, separated by just 32 seconds (27:02 vs. 27:34).
• 20 men finished in M35-39, with times ranging from Goins's 21:31 all the way to Devin Toohey's 1:01:29.

Theo Goins, the oldest man on the M35-39 podium at 39, made the race look straightforward. His 21:31 at 6:56/mi was in a different class from everyone else on the start list — Buckley's 2nd-place 24:13 trailed by 2:42, a gap that tells you this one was decided early and decisively.

Buckley (37, Woodstock, GA) and Wagner (38, Huntsville, AL) ran solid races of their own to claim the podium spots. Wagner's 26:03 put him comfortably clear of the next chase pack, where Lamberth and Freeman waged the afternoon's closest finish. Those two were locked together through most of the race, with Lamberth holding off Freeman by 32 seconds — meaningful in a 5K, but not a runaway by any measure.

Behind the top five, Edgar Estrada (36, Decatur, AL) rounded out the top six at 28:46, while Nate Davis and Adam Dunn ran nearly identical races in 8th and 9th (31:35 and 31:58). Note that entries 7 and 10 — Travis Sturges and Jorge Interiano — show times in the 9-hour range, almost certainly reflecting a data anomaly rather than actual 5K finish times. The rest of the M35-39 field spread across a wide range of efforts, with Devin Toohey (37, Portland, OR) completing the group at 1:01:29 to round out all 20 finishers.