Rocket City Half Marathon F40-44: Vieselmeyer Dominates in the Cold

• Julie Vieselmeyer, 1:33:58 (7:10/mi) — wins the F40-44 age group by 5 minutes and 6 seconds, finishing 11th among all women.
• Kelly Burt (1:39:04) and Jennifer Hom (1:41:17) lock up 2nd and 3rd, separated by 2:13 but both closing strong — Burt ran the 18th-fastest final leg among women, Hom the 21st.
• Jessica Troyer's late charge: entering the 6.8M→Finish stretch in 34th among women, the hometown Huntsville runner surged to 29th — the 28th-fastest closing split among women — to claim 4th in 1:44:17.
• 98 finishers completed the F40-44 race, with the top 20 alone spanning nearly 34 minutes from Vieselmeyer's 1:33:58 down to Ashley Wilkins' 2:07:22.

With temperatures locked at 29°F and a 16 mph wind cutting across Huntsville, the F40-44 field delivered some of the sharpest racing of the morning. Julie Vieselmeyer, 44, was simply in a different gear — her 7:10/mi average held up well enough to finish 11th among all women, and she carried the 14th-fastest closing split among women from 6.8 miles to the finish. In a field of 98, that kind of sustained pace in freezing conditions is worth noting.

The battle for the podium behind her had a clear shape. Kelly Burt (1:39:04, 7:33/mi) never relinquished 2nd, and Jennifer Hom (1:41:17, 7:44/mi) secured 3rd — both running the second half well enough to improve their positions among the broader women's field. The gap between Burt and Hom at 2:13 was real, but both were well clear of 4th, where Jessica Troyer's closing surge made her the most dynamic mover in the group. Troyer climbed five spots in the women's field over the final 6.8 miles to finish in 1:44:17.

Holli Salamone (5th, 1:47:12) and Brittany Garrett (6th, 1:49:49) rounded out the top six before a tight cluster emerged around the 1:57–1:58 mark: Nicole Hill (8th, 1:57:03), Katie Stidham (9th, 1:57:26), and Ali Dragoo (10th, 1:57:57) finished within 54 seconds of each other. Eri Yamada (11th, 1:58:04) was just seven seconds further back — four women separated by under a minute in bitter cold. That's a race within a race.