Rocket City Front Half — F55-59: Kaki Jenkins Breaks Two Hours

• Kaki Jenkins won the F55-59 age group in 1:59:50 (9:08/mi), the only finisher to crack the two-hour mark across all 11 women in the group.
• Jenkins gained ground in the closing miles, moving from 33rd to 31st among women on the 10K-to-Finish leg — posting the 31st-fastest women's split on that stretch.
• Dede Mary Sparkman and Martha Hayden separated by just under three minutes (2:02:58 vs. 2:05:50) in a tight battle for 2nd and 3rd.
• The field spanned nearly two full hours from front to back — Jenkins at 1:59:50, Deborah Colgan at 3:59:47.

Warm and muggy for a December morning in Huntsville — 60°F and 85% humidity — the conditions made sub-two-hour half marathon running a genuine achievement, and Kaki Jenkins delivered exactly that. The 59-year-old from Birmingham crossed in 1:59:50 at 9:08 per mile, the lone finisher in the F55-59 field to beat the two-hour barrier. She didn't just hold on to win, either — she was still pressing in the back half, climbing two spots among women on the 10K-to-Finish segment to seal the result.

Behind Jenkins, Springfield's Dede Mary Sparkman (55) ran 2:02:58 to take 2nd, but she gave a little back in the closing miles, sliding from 32nd to 36th among women over that same stretch. Martha Hayden of Nashville held steady, moving up one spot among women on the 10K-to-Finish leg and finishing 3rd in 2:05:50 at 9:36 per mile — just shy of 2:06 and a comfortable cushion over 4th-place Sandra Temesio's 2:18:12.

The rest of the field was spread wide. Susan Stauffer (58) rounded out the top five in 2:34:15, with Julie Nidiffer, Jennifer Carter, Peggy Dyer, Maria Summers, J Schierberg, and Deborah Colgan completing the group across a range of efforts that stretched all the way to 3:59:47. Eleven women finished, all of them covering 13.1 miles in December heat that had no business feeling like late summer.