Rocket City Half Marathon: Tenly Stewart tops a fearless F0-14 field

• Tenly Stewart won the F0-14 age group in 1:50:16 (8:25/mi), holding off Eleanor Gannon by 37 seconds.
• Eleanor Gannon ran the stronger second half, posting the 37th-fastest women's split on the 6.8M–Finish stretch to climb from 75th to 49th among women.
• All four finishers are 14 years old, making this one of the most age-uniform groups on the course — and one of the most impressive, given 29°F temperatures and a 16 mph wind.
• Anna Larson rounded out the podium in 2:09:53, nearly 19 minutes clear of fourth place.

Four 14-year-olds lined up in Huntsville on a biting December morning — 29°F, a stiff 16 mph wind — and every one of them finished a half marathon. Tenly Stewart took the win in 1:50:16, averaging 8:25 per mile across the full 13.1, and she did it on a day when plenty of adult runners were fighting the same cold air.

The most compelling subplot was Eleanor Gannon's closing surge. She spent the first half of the race buried 75th among women, but over the 6.8-mile-to-finish stretch she posted the 37th-fastest women's split in the field — a genuinely fast piece of running at any age — climbing all the way to 49th among women by the tape. That effort closed the gap to 37 seconds, but Stewart had just enough. Stewart, for her part, ran a more measured second half, sliding slightly from 39th to 46th among women, but her overall pace held firm where it needed to.

Anna Larson crossed in 2:09:53 (9:54/mi) to claim third, a solid effort that left nearly 19 minutes of daylight between her and Tatum Abel, who finished fourth in 2:46:33. Abel's 12:42/mi pace on a frigid, windy course still represents a completed half marathon — no small thing. Four starters, four finishers, all from north Alabama, all 14 years old. On a day like this, that's a result worth noting.