Rocket City 5K — M60-64: Tamez Dominates at 6:48 Pace

• Gerard Tamez won the M60-64 group in 21:07 (6:48/mi), finishing more than 3 minutes clear of the field.
• Chip Barton claimed 2nd in 24:12 (7:47/mi), with Jim Tompkins taking 3rd in 27:52 (8:58/mi) — a gap of 3:40 between them.
• The top three finished within a relatively compact 6:45 window; places 4 through 6 spanned an additional 32+ minutes.
• Six men from across the region — New Market, Lexington, Athens, Huntsville, Shelbyville, and Madison — toed the line in M60-64.

Gerard Tamez, 63, made the M60-64 race look straightforward. His 21:07 at 6:48 per mile is a genuinely quick effort for any age group, and in this one it was simply untouchable — the nearest challenger, Chip Barton of Lexington, finished three minutes and five seconds back. On a mild December morning in Huntsville, 59°F with a light breeze, conditions were about as good as Alabama offers in December, and Tamez took full advantage.

Barton (24:12) and Jim Tompkins of Athens (27:52) settled the podium behind him. The 3:40 gap between 2nd and 3rd was real but not ruinous — both men ran honest paces across a short course where there's nowhere to hide. Alan Johnston of Huntsville came home 4th in 52:44, a significant step back from the top three, suggesting a very different kind of day on the roads.

Pruitt Marshall and Craig Eichelkraut rounded out the six-man field, with Marshall's 9:55:42 indicating he likely encountered some difficulty along the way. Eichelkraut finished 6th in 1:00:27. Regardless of how the back of the field unfolded, the story of M60-64 at Rocket City 2024 belongs to Tamez — a 63-year-old running sub-7-minute miles on a December morning is worth the headline on its own.