Men's Half Marathon: Arop Dominates in Huntsville

• Marco Arop, 1:11:16 (5:26/mi) — won the men's race by 2:17 over Alan Carreno, the largest gap on the podium.
• Stuart Lamp (1:16:03) and Nic Temple (1:16:05) — 3rd and 4th separated by just two seconds, with Temple actually running the faster closing split (8M→Finish) despite finishing behind Lamp.
• Luke Bogardus, age 15, finished 6th in 1:22:39 — one of the youngest in the field and one of its fastest.
• Eric Thomas improved from 7th (1:32:05) in 2023 to 16th (1:30:59) in 2024 — a faster time, though a deeper field pushed him further back in the standings.

Marco Arop made this look easy. The 26-year-old from Starkville, MS, crossed in 1:11:16 at a 5:26/mi clip — more than two minutes clear of anyone else in the men's field of 355. He held the lead wire to wire, and then punctuated it with the fastest closing split of the race from 8 miles to the finish, pulling away when it mattered most.

Alan Carreno (1:13:33, 5:37/mi) ran a composed second-place effort from Las Vegas, posting the second-fastest closing split to hold off the rest. Behind him, the race for the final podium spot was a genuine battle: Stuart Lamp of Decatur, AL, finished 3rd in 1:16:03, with Nic Temple of Trussville, AL just two seconds back in 4th at 1:16:05. Notably, Temple had the 3rd-fastest closing split in the men's field while Lamp's was 4th — meaning Temple was the one catching up over those final miles, but Lamp had built just enough of a cushion to hold on.

Two teenagers worth noting: 15-year-old Luke Bogardus of Madison, AL, ran 1:22:39 to finish 6th among all men, and 17-year-old Josh Martinez of Knoxville, TN, clocked 1:27:03 for 12th — the same weekend Martinez also took 2nd in the men's 5K here at Rocket City, a strong double-race showing. Stuart Lamp's son Jack, 16, finished 7th in 1:23:14, making the Lamp family one of the day's better stories out of Decatur.