Rocket City Half Marathon M60-64: Torres Blazes to a Dominant Age-Group Win

• Rick Torres (1st, 1:26:53, 6:38/mi) topped the M60-64 field by 2:32 over Richard Alderton — a commanding margin that was never seriously in doubt.
• Daniel Stonaker and Sidney Mays (4th and 5th) both clocked 1:40:15, but the timing chips separated them — Stonaker edged across the line ahead by the slimmest of margins.
• Tony Crider and Joe Boros (9th and 10th) finished in 1:59:51 and 1:59:57 respectively — six seconds apart after 13.1 miles in 29°F cold and a stiff 16 mph wind.
• 30 men ages 60–64 toed the line and finished, spread across a range from 1:26:53 to well past two hours.

Rick Torres made the M60-64 race look almost straightforward. Running a 6:38/mi average through frigid Huntsville conditions — 29°F, clear skies, and a biting 16 mph wind — the 63-year-old from Elizabethtown, KY, crossed in 1:26:53 and never relinquished his spot among the top 25 men in the entire field. He actually gained a position in the back half, posting the 24th-fastest split among the men from 6.8 miles to the finish. It was a wire-to-wire statement.

Richard Alderton (2nd, 1:29:25, 6:49/mi) was the clear runner-up, finishing 2:32 back and also running a strong second half — the 31st-fastest men's split from 6.8M to the line. The anonymous third-place finisher (1:35:58, 7:19/mi) held steady throughout to complete a well-defined podium, with a 6:33 gap separating him from Alderton.

The race's most intriguing moment came at fourth and fifth. Daniel Stonaker (Alpharetta, GA) and Sidney Mays (Sylacauga, AL) both stopped the clock at 1:40:15 — identical on the display — but Mays actually ran the stronger back half, posting the 82nd-fastest men's split from 6.8M to the finish compared to Stonaker's 84th. The catch-up wasn't quite enough: Stonaker's earlier work held him in fourth by the finest of margins the timing system could detect.

Further back, the cold and wind took their toll on a competitive middle pack. Tony Crider (9th, 1:59:51) and Joe Boros (10th, 1:59:57) spent 13.1 miles essentially together, separated by just six seconds at the tape — a testament to how evenly matched this age group ran through brutal conditions. David Chadwick (11th, 2:01:42) and Hugh Beckwith (12th, 2:08:02) rounded out the sub-2:10 contingent, with 10 additional finishers completing the M60-64 field.