Rocket City 10K — F65-69: Elliott Dominates in the Cold

• Kathy Elliott won the F65-69 age group in 1:06:48 (10:45/mi), finishing 11:35 ahead of 2nd place — the largest margin in the field.
• The gap from 2nd to 8th spanned just 26:53, with five athletes separated by under 27 minutes across places 2–8.
• Lee Collins, at 65 the youngest in the group, finished 5th in 1:29:30 — sandwiched between two 68-year-olds.
• Rose Hall and Barbara Leiser finished within 53 seconds of each other for 7th and 8th.

Eight women toed the line in Huntsville on a biting 29°F morning — clear skies, a 16 mph wind, and 42% humidity making every mile feel a little sharper than the number suggests. In those conditions, Kathy Elliott, 69, from nearby Madison, AL, delivered the kind of performance that makes the rest of the field look like a different race. Her 1:06:48 at 10:45 per mile wasn't just a win — it was a statement, crossing the line nearly twelve minutes before Linda Meeks of Memphis claimed 2nd in 1:18:23.

Behind Meeks, the race tightened considerably. Cindy Moeller (1:23:17) and Vicki Sue Merry (1:26:27) were separated by just over three minutes for 3rd and 4th, with Lee Collins rounding out the top five in 1:29:30. Collins, at 65 the youngest competitor in the group, couldn't quite bridge the gap to Merry despite the age advantage on paper.

The back half of the field played out its own quiet drama. Jamie Sizemore crossed in 1:41:13 for 6th, and then Barbara Leiser and Rose Hall — arriving from Vermont and Mississippi respectively — finished 7th and 8th within 53 seconds of one another, Leiser in 1:44:23 and Hall in 1:45:16. On a morning cold enough to make finishing feel like its own reward, all eight did exactly that.