M35-39 at Rocket City: Kigen dominates in the cold

• Erick Kigen wins in 2:33:36 (5:52/mi), moving from 8th to 3rd among the men and posting the 4th-fastest Half→20M split in the men's field.
• Jhason Smith runs down 2nd in 2:37:10 — a 3:34 gap back — after holding 4th among the men through the first half before fading to 8th by the finish.
• Clay Murfet's late surge stands out: he climbed from 52nd to 27th among the men across the race, posting the 21st-fastest 20M→Finish split in the men's field.
• Spots 6–9 finish within 57 seconds — Crouch (2:49:53), Hudson (2:50:09), Schrandt (2:50:50), and Pierce (2:51:00) — a four-man cluster at 6:29–6:31/mi.

Twenty-nine degrees, a 16 mph wind, and a clear Huntsville sky greeted 121 M35-39 runners on December 14th — conditions that reward those willing to push early and hold form. Erick Kigen of Huntsville did exactly that. He went out sitting 8th among the men, then surged through the middle miles to reach the 20-mile mark in 3rd, ultimately crossing in 2:33:36 at a blistering 5:52/mi. His Half→20M split ranked 4th-fastest among the men in the field — that's where the race was won.

Jhason Smith (Hermitage, TN) was the early aggressor, sitting 4th among the men through 10K, but the back half told a different story. He faded from 4th to 8th in the men's standings over the final miles, though his 2:37:10 finish — anchored by the 7th-fastest 20M→Finish split among the men — was more than enough to hold off David Plotkin (Beverly, MA), who ran a steady, progressive race to claim 3rd in M35-39 in 2:39:18. Plotkin moved from 15th to 9th among the men across the full race and posted the 10th-fastest second-half split in the men's field — a quiet, well-executed negative split.

The real entertainment in the middle of the pack belonged to Clay Murfet (Peachtree City, GA), who began the race buried 52nd among the men and picked off runners relentlessly, finishing 27th among the men in 2:49:03. His 21st-fastest 20M→Finish split in the men's field suggests he saved his best running for last — or simply started too conservatively. Just behind him, four runners — Crouch, Hudson, Schrandt, and Pierce — finished within a single minute of each other, all hovering around 6:29–6:31/mi in the cold. In a 121-runner M35-39 field, that kind of compression makes for a race worth watching all the way to the final timing mat.