M80-99: Ben Oni Owns the Field

• Sole finisher and champion: Ben Oni, 80, crossed in 2:29:25 at an 11:24/mi average on a brutally cold December morning in Huntsville.
• Conditions were no joke: 29°F, clear skies, and a 16 mph wind made this a test of will as much as fitness.

Ben Oni didn't just win the M80-99 age group at the 2025 Rocket City Marathon Half — he was the M80-99 age group, standing alone as the only finisher in the bracket. That's not a footnote; that's a statement. At 80 years old, Oni lined up on a frigid Alabama morning — 29°F with a 16 mph wind cutting across the course — and ran 13.1 miles at an 11:24/mi pace to finish in 2:29:25.

There's no gap to the runner-up because there was no runner-up. Oni's victory was total and uncontested, earned across every cold, windy mile from start to finish. He closed out the back half of the course — 6.8 miles to the finish — with a split that ranked among the men's field, a testament to the consistency he maintained even as the conditions pressed hard against him.

At an age when most people have long since traded race bibs for spectator chairs, Ben Oni is still toeing the line and finishing what he starts. The clock read 2:29:25. The age group was his. Full stop.