Rocket City Half Marathon — F45-49: Reed Runs Away With It

• Kanita Reed won the F45-49 age group in 1:42:02 (7:47/mi), finishing 5th among all women and posting the 4th-fastest women's split from 8M to the finish.
• Kate McCurdy was a clear runner-up in 1:46:20, holding 16th among women — a gap of 4:18 back to Reed, with the 18th-fastest women's closing split.
• A 11:58 gap separates 2nd from 3rd: Rie Takesue crossed in 1:58:00 to claim the final podium spot.
• The top-20 spans 45 minutes of racing, from Reed's 1:42:02 down to Shane Sweet's 2:27:31.

Kanita Reed made this one look straightforward. Running 7:47 per mile across a cool, overcast Huntsville morning, she was never far from 5th among the entire women's field and backed it up with the 4th-fastest women's closing split from mile 8 to the finish — meaning she didn't just hold on, she pressed. The win was decisive, and the margin made it clear.

Kate McCurdy was equally composed, sitting 17th among women through the first half before ticking up to 16th by the finish and logging the 18th-fastest women's closing split in the field. Her 1:46:20 was a strong second, but the gap to Reed was a firm 4:18 — not a race that was ever in doubt at the front. New York's Rie Takesue (1:58:00, 9:00/mi) rounded out the podium in 3rd, a full 11:58 behind McCurdy.

Behind the podium, Maya Ellison and Erica Studdard filled 4th and 5th, though Ellison's closing split told a different story — she dropped from 55th to 66th among women in the back half, while Studdard moved the other direction, climbing from 82nd to 79th. Dawn Wilson (2:05:10), Cheri McDonald (2:05:38), and Susan Holland (2:06:11) ran nearly shoulder-to-shoulder through 6th, 7th, and 8th, separated by just 61 seconds across three athletes. With 42 finishers in the F45-49 group and times stretching well past 2:27, this was a wide, competitive field from front to back.