Rocket City M65-69: Tiller Dominates in the December Heat

• Bruce Tiller won the M65-69 group in 1:46:51 (8:09/mi), finishing nearly 10 minutes clear of second place.
• Rand Hammel claimed second in 1:56:42, with a strong closing leg — the 109th-fastest 10K-to-Finish split among all men.
• Places 4 and 5 were decided by just 3 seconds: Arif Rehman (2:22:52) edged Stephen Miles (2:22:55).
• The M65-69 group spanned nearly 1:38:01 from first to last, with eight finishers braving 70°F heat and 17 mph winds.

Bruce Tiller made this one look straightforward. The 65-year-old from Huntsville ran 8:09/mi from gun to tape, finishing in 1:46:51 and moving up four spots among the men over the final stretch — from 46th to 42nd in the men's field — with the 51st-fastest 10K-to-Finish split among all men. On a warm, blustery December day in Alabama, that kind of sustained pace in an age group is worth noting.

Rand Hammel of Springville, Indiana, was the clear runner-up at 1:56:42 (8:54/mi), but his second half told a different story from Tiller's. Hammel slipped from 47th to 80th among the men over the final 10K-to-Finish segment, suggesting the heat and wind took their toll late. Still, nearly a minute per mile faster than third place, second was never in doubt.

The real drama in this group came in the battle for fourth. Arif Rehman (Dover, TN, age 68) and Stephen Miles (Sarasota, FL, age 69) ran virtually identical races — both averaging 10:54/mi — before Rehman crossed the line in 2:22:52 to Miles's 2:22:55, a margin of just three seconds after more than two hours of racing. Kaveh Maleknia rounded out the top six just 46 seconds further back at 2:23:41.

Chris Hoffman and Eric Ashley completed the eight-man field, finishing in 2:58:12 and 3:24:52 respectively. At 15:38/mi, Ashley's effort over 13.1 miles in that humidity and wind is its own kind of endurance story.