Rocket City 5K — F60-64: Kelly Edges Libby in a Three-Second Thriller

• Karen Kelly wins the F60-64 age group in 27:18 (8:47/mi) — with Tina Libby just three seconds back at 27:21.
• Top two separated the field early: 3rd-place Helen Brooks finished 2:38 behind Libby, making the battle up front its own private race.
• 24 women finished in the F60-64 age group, ranging from 27:18 to well past 50 minutes, a spread that shows the depth and variety of the field.
• Dorotha Biernesser, the group's oldest finisher listed at 64, crossed in 46:26 — representing the full span of the age group from 60 to 64.

At 29°F with a 16 mph wind cutting through Huntsville, the F60-64 field didn't flinch. Karen Kelly, running 8:47 per mile, claimed the age-group title by the slimmest of margins — three seconds over Tina Libby's 27:21. Both women were well clear of the rest of the field, and that gap tells the real story: this was a two-woman race at the front, decided by a handful of strides.

Helen Brooks took 3rd in 29:56, crossing the two-minute barrier behind Libby and holding off Lisa Devine (30:50) and Debra Shone (31:22) to complete the podium. Wendy Wilson and Kimberly Holt rounded out the top seven, both finishing in the 31–32 minute range and keeping the middle of the field competitive.

The back half of the field spread across a wide range of efforts, from Nicole Shaklee's 34:18 in 8th to Karen Crotty and Stacia Jackson pushing past the 50-minute mark in 19th and 20th. In cold, windy conditions like these, finishing is its own achievement — and all 24 women in the F60-64 group did exactly that.