Rocket City Half Marathon F30-34: Fortugno Runs Down the Win in Freezing Huntsville

• Hali Fortugno won the F30-34 age group in 1:27:56 (6:42/mi), closing with the 5th-fastest women's split on the final 6.8M-to-finish stretch to move from 6th to 5th among all women.
• Catherine Terwilliger finished 2nd in 1:28:17 (6:44/mi) — just 21 seconds back — but faded from 5th to 7th among women over the final leg while Fortugno gained ground.
• Shelby Anderson claimed 3rd in 1:37:57, a full 9:40 behind Terwilliger, with the 20th-fastest women's closing split — holding her own in a 110-runner field.
• Melanie Fujiwara posted the sharpest fade of the top five: 4th at the midpoint among the group but dropping from 25th to 48th among all women on the back half, finishing 5th in 1:50:45.

Twenty-nine degrees, a 16 mph wind, and clear skies in Huntsville made for a sharp, demanding morning — and Hali Fortugno of Birmingham handled it better than anyone in the F30-34 age group. She came through the first half sitting 6th among all women, then turned up the heat over the final 6.8 miles, logging the 5th-fastest women's closing split in the field to cross in 1:27:56. That finishing surge was the decisive move of the race.

Catherine Terwilliger, the hometown runner from Huntsville, made it a genuine contest. She was actually running ahead of Fortugno in the women's standings at the halfway mark — 5th to Fortugno's 6th — but the final stretch told a different story. Terwilliger ran the close at 6:44/mi to Fortugno's 6:42/mi, a meaningful gap over seven-plus miles, and slid back to 7th among women by the finish line. Her 1:28:17 earned a well-deserved 2nd in the age group, just 21 seconds off the win.

Behind that front pair, Shelby Anderson of Murfreesboro, TN locked up 3rd in 1:37:57 at 7:28/mi, a comfortable margin over 4th-place Zoe Stoll (1:46:55, 8:09/mi). Stoll, traveling from Oakland, CA, actually gained ground in the women's field late — moving from 37th to 34th among women on the closing leg. The back half of the top ten was tightly packed, with Kate Cyprian (6th, 1:53:02), Hannah Hobbs (7th, 1:53:16), and Meg McArdle (8th, 1:53:31) separated by just 29 seconds across three places.