M65-69 at Rocket City: Savoy runs away with it

• Richard Savoy (68, Mason, TN) won the M65-69 group in 1:57:36 — the only finisher to break two hours, at an 8:58/mi clip.
• Mark Mueller (69, Orion, IL) was a clear runner-up in 2:06:14, nearly nine minutes back.
• Richard Broome was the strongest finisher in the back half of the field, climbing from 5th to claim 5th — but his 10K-to-finish split was notably sharper than both Mueller's and McCune's, posting the 159th-fastest split in that segment versus their 111th and 155th.
• Nine men ages 65–69 finished across a spread of nearly 1:29 from first to last.

Richard Savoy set the tone from the gun and never let up. Running 8:58 per mile through a damp, humid Huntsville morning — 98% humidity with an 8 mph wind — the 68-year-old from Mason, Tennessee, built a lead that only grew. By the 10K mark he had moved up to 70th among the men, and he held that ground all the way to the line. His 1:57:36 wasn't just a win; it was a statement, the only sub-two-hour effort in the entire M65-69 field.

Mark Mueller of Orion, Illinois, was the clear second-best story of the day. At 69 — the oldest runner on the M65-69 podium — he crossed in 2:06:14, a solid 9:38/mi effort. He did drift back slightly in the men's field over the second half, but he held off Tim McCune (Springville, AL) comfortably; McCune's 2:20:37 left a gap of more than 14 minutes between second and third.

The battle for fourth and fifth produced the race's most interesting late movement. Dave Porter (Three Rivers, MI) held fourth in 2:24:28, but Richard Broome of Birmingham ran the stronger second half — his 10K-to-finish split ranked ahead of both Porter's and McCune's in the men's field — and closed to within just under two minutes of Porter at the line, finishing fifth in 2:26:23. Sometimes the numbers tell a story of a runner who found another gear a touch too late.

Jose Centeno, David Mace, David Frederick, and Luis Arauz rounded out the nine, with Arauz completing the course in 3:26:18 — a 15:44/mi pace that, on a heavy-humidity December morning, still gets you to the finish line.