Rocket City 10K: Andy Choi dominates M50-54 with a commanding wire-to-wire win

• Andy Choi won M50-54 in 46:50 (7:32/mi), finishing nearly 3 minutes clear of the field.
• Yukio Ito claimed 2nd in 49:40, with Robert Sleasman 3rd in 51:48 — a gap of just 30 seconds separating those two spots.
• Places 3 through 5 were a genuine battle: Sleasman, Mark Cope, and Rodger Lebedz finished within 34 seconds of each other across 6.2 miles.
• 18 men completed the M50-54 race, spanning a range of nearly 54 minutes from first to last.

Andy Choi made this one look easy. The 50-year-old from Madison ran a 7:32/mi pace over 6.2 miles in mild December conditions — overcast skies, 59°F, a light breeze — and crossed the line in 46:50, nearly three minutes ahead of anyone else in the M50-54 group. That kind of margin in a 10K is not a close race; it's a statement.

Behind him, Yukio Ito held 2nd comfortably in 49:40, but the real drama unfolded in the fight for 3rd. Robert Sleasman (54, Madison), Mark Cope (52, Warrior), and Rodger Lebedz (54, Huntsville) ran the final stretch in a tight cluster — 51:48, 52:18, and 52:22 respectively. That's 34 seconds separating three men over more than six miles, with Lebedz and Cope separated by just four seconds at the line. Sleasman held on for the final podium spot, but it was close enough to feel throughout.

Further back, Luis Garcia (6th, 54:11) and David Dixon and Brandt Estes — who finished 7th and 8th in 55:44 and 55:48 — added more tight racing to the afternoon. Dixon and Estes were separated by just four seconds, a reminder that competition in M50-54 didn't thin out after the podium. The back half of the field stretched the clock considerably, with Daniel McMillan rounding out the 18-man group in 1:40:42 — every finisher earning their result on a solid December morning in Huntsville.