Rocket City Half Marathon F65-69: Gale Moore Runs Away With It

• Gale Moore, 66, wins in 2:00:34 — a 9:12/mi pace that left the field nearly 10 minutes behind the runner-up.
• Cydney Thomson finishes 2nd in 2:10:06 (9:55/mi), with Robin Kramer-Granzow taking 3rd in 2:16:59 (10:27/mi) — a 6:53 gap between them.
• Alma Fujiwara, 69, makes the strongest closing move of the group, gaining 49 places among women on the back half to finish 5th in 2:35:59.
• Robin Lewis-Dimond and Dale Mitchell both clock 3:16:04, with timing separating them into 15th and 16th place.

Running 13.1 miles at 9:12/mi in 29°F with a 16 mph wind is no small feat, and Gale Moore, 66, from Columbia, TN, made it look controlled. She crossed in 2:00:34 — the only finisher in the F65-69 group to break the 2:10 barrier, and her margin over second place was 9 minutes and 32 seconds. On the back half of the course (6.8M to the finish), she posted the 150th-fastest women's split across the entire women's field, holding her position solidly in the closing miles.

Cydney Thomson, running on home turf in Huntsville, earned 2nd in 2:10:06, while Robin Kramer-Granzow of Dardenne Prairie, MO, settled into 3rd at 2:16:59. Sharon Neeley, 68, from nearby Sylvania, AL, rounded out the top four in 2:19:09 — less than 2:11 separating 2nd through 4th, making that cluster the race's tightest battle in the group.

The story of the back half belonged to Alma Fujiwara. The 69-year-old from Spring Hill, TN, entered the final stretch ranked 547th among women and finished 498th — a gain of 49 places — on her way to a 5th-place finish in 2:35:59. That's the most ground made up in the F65-69 field over that stretch, and she did it running an 11:54/mi average on a cold, windy December morning.

The field spread wide from there, with 24 women completing the race across a range of efforts — from Tina Kellar's 6th-place 2:41:16 to Lee Collins finishing 20th in 3:36:41. Fourteen seconds separated Collins and Anne Hession (19th, 3:36:38) at the back of the listed field, a reminder that close finishes weren't limited to the front.