Rocket City Half Marathon — F25-29: Joffrion Dominates the Back Half

• Rachel Joffrion won the F25-29 age group in 1:39:19 (7:35/mi), holding 2nd among all women from gun to tape and posting the fastest women's split on the 8M→Finish stretch.
• Hannah Nails ran the 3rd-fastest women's closing split to lock up 2nd in the age group at 1:42:08 — just 2:49 behind the winner.
• Kaylie Catlin rounded out the podium in 1:43:38, but faded slightly on the back half, dropping from 9th to 10th among women with the 12th-fastest women's closing split.
• A tight cluster from 13th through 16th place — Laurien Assis, Megan Johnson, Caitlin Cartwright, and Courtney Cartwright — all finished between 2:04:43 and 2:04:52, a span of just nine seconds across four runners.

Rachel Joffrion made Huntsville feel like home. The 28-year-old local ran a composed 1:39:19, averaging 7:35 per mile, and finished 2nd among all women in the field. What sealed her age-group title was the back half: Joffrion posted the fastest closing split of any woman on the 8M→Finish segment, a move that left no doubt about who owned the late miles on a mild, overcast December morning.

Hannah Nails of Madison gave chase and made it respectable. Her 1:42:08 came with the 3rd-fastest women's closing split in the field, meaning she was flying too — just not quite at Joffrion's level. The 2:49 gap between first and second tells the story cleanly. Kaylie Catlin (1:43:38, 7:54/mi) held on for third despite slipping a spot among the women's field over the final miles, her 12th-fastest women's closing split still strong enough to keep the podium intact.

Further back, Olivia McGriff was the age group's best mover in the finishing stretch, climbing from 29th to 25th among women with the 22nd-fastest women's closing split to edge into 5th place at 1:50:02. And the finish-line logjam around 13th–16th place was something to behold: Assis, Johnson, and both Cartwrights — Caitlin and Courtney — all crossed within nine seconds of each other, each clocking a 9:31–9:32 pace. Seventy-eight women finished in the F25-29 age group, and the racing was real from front to back.