Rocket City 5K — F25-29: Nails Drives It Home in the Cold

• Hannah Nails won the F25-29 age group in 22:05 (7:06/mi), edging runner-up Leahrose Mami by 22 seconds in 29°F wind-bitten conditions.
• Leahrose Mami (22:27, 7:14/mi) pulled double duty at Rocket City — she had already won the women's 10K outright, making her silver here one of the weekend's most impressive stories.
• Marissa Levine rounded out the podium in 24:02 (7:44/mi), a full 1:35 back of Mami and well clear of 4th.
• Shelby Constantine and Allie Buchanan crossed in the same clock time of 30:09 (9:42/mi) for 7th and 8th respectively — the places are distinct, but the margin was razor-thin.

With 29°F air and a 16 mph wind cutting through Huntsville, the F25-29 field of 31 runners had to earn every second on Saturday morning. Hannah Nails did exactly that, clocking 7:06/mi to take the age-group title by 22 seconds over Leahrose Mami. It was a clear, decisive win — Nails ran the faster pace from start to finish and never let Mami close the gap.

The bigger subplot may belong to Mami herself. Coming in at 22:27 and 7:14/mi, she was already carrying a women's 10K title into this race — and she nearly added an F25-29 5K win on top of it. Racing and placing across two events in the same weekend is a genuine feat, and Mami's silver here only adds to what was an outstanding Rocket City showing. Marissa Levine (24:02) held a comfortable third, finishing nearly two minutes ahead of Joantony Barrientos in 4th (26:05, 8:24/mi) to lock up the podium.

Further back, Rebecca Mulholland (5th, 27:02) brought her own cross-race credential — she'd also placed 10th among women in the 10K. Katherine Hulett finished 6th in 28:22 before the field spread out into the 30-minute range, where Constantine and Buchanan's near-identical 30:09 finishes made for the tightest battle of the back half. Bethany Nichols (9th, 31:05) and Amiayah Jones (10th, 32:24) kept the competition honest all the way through a cold North Alabama morning.