Masters Women at Rocket City: Weems Dominates in the Heat

• Ami Weems won the Masters Women race in 1:36:50 (7:23/mi), finishing more than six minutes clear of second place.
• Kathleen Johnston, 64, claimed 6th — one of the most impressive performances of the day relative to age.
• Amber Cheeves and Anne Harbarger finished in an official 1:51:33 apiece, but the timing separates them — Cheeves holds 8th, Harbarger 9th.
• The top four all held their women's field positions steady from the 10K to the finish, a sign of even, disciplined pacing in tough conditions.

Seventy degrees, 17 mph wind, and 76% humidity in December — Rocket City's Front Half Half Marathon served up a genuinely challenging morning, and Ami Weems of Birmingham handled it better than anyone in the Masters Women field of 99. Her 7:23/mi average produced a 1:36:50 that stood more than six minutes ahead of Nashville's Kathryn Dahir (1:42:58, 7:51/mi). That gap isn't a close race — it's a statement.

Weems also posted the 5th-fastest women's split on the 10K-to-finish stretch, meaning she didn't just hold on — she closed. Dahir answered with the 9th-fastest closing split among all women, while third-place Lynsey Tibbs (1:45:36) and fourth-place Colleen Cross (1:46:16) each ran strong final segments as well, with Cross's 11th-fastest and Tibbs's 12th-fastest women's closing splits separated by just 40 seconds at the line.

The middle of the Masters Women field delivered its own drama. Kathleen Johnston of Nashville, 64 years old, ran 1:50:37 to claim 6th — a performance that deserves its own moment of recognition in a field where most competitors were decades younger. Just behind her, Lisa McCormick, Amber Cheeves, and Anne Harbarger were locked in a tight cluster through the finish. Cheeves and Harbarger both stopped the clock at 1:51:33, but the timing chip tells the true story: Cheeves in 8th, Harbarger in 9th, separated by less than a blink.

Further back, the battle around the two-hour mark was equally competitive, with Patricia Howison and Kathy Murgas finishing back-to-back at 1:57:37 and 1:57:38 — one second apart after 13.1 miles on a warm, windy Alabama morning.