Rocket City Half Marathon: Margaret Lamb rules F60-64

• Lamb wins in 2:15:39 (10:21/mi), finishing more than four minutes clear of runner-up Wanda Shoemake (2:19:59).
• Shoemake's late surge was the most dramatic move of the race: she climbed from 232nd to 169th among women on the 8M→Finish stretch, posting the 118th-fastest women's split on that segment.
• Yvonne Brabham held 3rd in 2:21:09, though she slipped from 173rd to 185th among women in the back half — the only top-four finisher to lose ground in the women's field late.
• 14 women completed the F60-64 race, spanning from Lamb's 2:15:39 to Carole Edmonds' 3:28:31 — a range of over 72 minutes across the group.

Margaret Lamb of LaFayette, Georgia, was in control from the start, and her 10:21/mi average held firm all the way to the line. She moved from 151st to 144th among women across the second half, a modest but steady gain that reflects a composed, even effort on a mild December morning in Huntsville. Her winning margin of 4:20 over Shoemake was never seriously threatened.

The real drama behind her belonged to Wanda Shoemake. The Petal, Mississippi runner was sitting 232nd among women at the 8-mile mark — well outside the top third of the women's field — but she ran the 118th-fastest women's split from there to the finish, vaulting 63 places to cross in 2:19:59 and claim 2nd in the F60-64 group. That's a performance that deserves its own headline.

Yvonne Brabham of San Antonio rounded out the podium in 2:21:09, though she ran the second half slightly harder than her legs could sustain, slipping 12 spots in the women's standings over that closing stretch. Charla Green (2:23:28) and Melinda Still (2:32:49) completed the top five, with Still — a hometown Huntsville runner — holding steady through the finish.

Behind the top five, a tight cluster of local and regional runners filled out the field. Irene Fischer and Stephanie Green were separated by just 1:26 across 8th and 9th place, and three more Huntsville-area athletes — Vanrell, Fischer, and Gulley — represented the host city well across the middle of the pack.