M35-39: Matt McMillian Runs Away With It in Huntsville's December Heat

• McMillian wins in 1:19:49 (6:05/mi), finishing more than seven minutes clear of runner-up Ankur Arora (1:26:48).
• Arora to Gaston — 2nd through 3rd spans another 5:35, spreading the podium across a wide range of finishing times.
• Kaveh Bastani and Jason Bosworth separated by just six seconds (1:45:36 vs. 1:45:42) for 7th and 8th in the tightest battle of the day.
• Eric Jones and Greg Ross clocked 1:50:07 and 1:50:10 — three seconds apart — for 11th and 12th among the 24 M35-39 finishers.

Seventy degrees, 17 mph winds, and 76% humidity in December made Huntsville's "Back Half" anything but a gift, and Matt McMillian treated it like a time trial anyway. The 38-year-old from Owens Cross Roads ran 6:05 per mile from start to finish, and his second-half surge told the real story — he posted the 9th-fastest split on the 10K-to-finish segment among the men, holding his position firmly in 8th in the men's field while pulling clear of everyone in M35-39.

Ankur Arora (age 35, Cordova, TN) was a solid second at 1:26:48, also gaining a place on the 10K-to-finish segment and finishing 14th among the men. Michael Gaston (Birmingham, AL) rounded out the podium in 1:32:23, picking up a spot in the men's field over the back half as well — a sign that the leaders in this group were running the second half smarter than those around them.

The real drama in M35-39 came in the pack. Bastani and Bosworth — both from different towns but separated by a mere six seconds after 13.1 miles — waged the closest duel of the group. Just behind them, Brian Keyser crossed in 1:46:06, only 24 seconds back of Bosworth in 9th. And further down, Jones and Ross hit the line in what amounted to a dead sprint on paper: 1:50:07 and 1:50:10, with Jones holding 11th by the slimmest of margins.