Rocket City Half Marathon — M35-39: McMillian Dominates in Huntsville

• Matt McMillian won the M35-39 group in 1:19:15 (6:03/mi), finishing the 10K-to-Finish stretch with the 3rd-fastest split among all men in that segment.
• Bo Brawner claimed 2nd in 1:24:38 — a 5:23 gap back from McMillian, but with the 5th-fastest men's split on the closing stretch.
• Michael Gaston rounded out the podium in 1:30:21, holding the 13th-fastest men's split on the 10K-to-Finish leg to finish comfortably clear of 4th.
• The gap from 1st to 20th was nearly 57 minutes, illustrating the wide spread across 27 finishers on a mild but breezy December morning.

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Matt McMillian put on a masterclass in Huntsville, winning the M35-39 group by more than five minutes with a 1:19:15 and a 6:03-per-mile average. The 39-year-old from Owens Cross Roads didn't just win his age group — he climbed from 2nd to 3rd among all men overall by the finish, and his closing leg from 10K to the finish line was the 3rd-fastest men's split in the entire field on that segment. That's not an age-group win built on thin competition; that's a genuinely fast race.

Bo Brawner, also 38 and running on home turf in Huntsville, was the clear runner-up at 1:24:38. He actually gained a place among the men's field over the second half — moving from 7th to 6th — powered by the 5th-fastest men's closing split in the race. He's the kind of finisher who gets stronger when it counts. Michael Gaston (1:30:21, 6:54/mi) completed the podium for Birmingham, holding 12th among men at the line and logging the 13th-fastest men's split on the closing stretch — a solid, consistent effort across 13.1 miles.

Behind the top three, Kristofer Driggers (1:35:37) and Ty Shepard (1:43:33) rounded out the top five, with Thomas Faust of Spring, TX — the lone out-of-state top-six finisher — crossing in 1:45:32. The field spread wide after that, with Nathan Carter (1:58:20) and Matthew McDaniel (1:58:50) separated by just 30 seconds in 10th and 11th, one of the tighter battles in the back half of the leaderboard. With seven finishers beyond the top 20, the M35-39 group brought genuine depth to a cool, overcast December morning in Huntsville.