Rocket City Half Marathon — F30-34: Fortugno Wins It in the Cold

• Hali Fortugno took the F30-34 title in 1:27:56 (6:42/mi), moving from 6th to 5th among women on the back half with the 5th-fastest women's split on the 6.8M-to-Finish stretch.
• Catherine Terwilliger, the hometown runner from Huntsville, finished 2nd in 1:28:17 — just 21 seconds back — but faded from 5th to 7th among women in that same closing stretch.
• Shelby Anderson rounded out the podium in 1:37:57, a full 10 minutes behind Terwilliger, with the gap to 4th place (Zoe Stoll, 1:46:55) nearly as wide.
• Places 14–16 in F30-34 finished within 7 seconds of each other: Mary Cockrell (1:56:21), Melody Webster (1:56:28), and Sarah Baron (1:56:28).

With temperatures locked at 29°F and a 16 mph wind cutting across Huntsville, this was a race that rewarded those who could hold form in the cold — and Hali Fortugno did exactly that. The Birmingham runner averaged 6:42/mi across 13.1 miles, a performance sharp enough to lift her into the top five among all women in the field. Her closing leg was the story: the 5th-fastest women's split from 6.8 miles to the finish tells you she wasn't just surviving the back half, she was hunting.

Catherine Terwilliger ran a nearly identical race for most of the morning. Racing in her own backyard in Huntsville, she held 5th among women through 6.8 miles — a step ahead of Fortugno in the women's standings at that point — before the final stretch shifted the picture. Terwilliger's closing split was the 6th-fastest among women, strong by any measure, but Fortugno's was stronger. The 21-second margin between them was the decisive sliver in an otherwise closely matched duel.

Shelby Anderson secured the podium in 3rd at 1:37:57, and from there the field spread out considerably. Zoe Stoll was a notable mover late, climbing from 37th to 34th among women on the closing leg to finish 4th in F30-34 at 1:46:55. Meanwhile, Melanie Fujiwara ran the opposite trajectory — sitting 25th among women at 6.8 miles before slipping to 48th by the finish, her 126th-fastest women's closing split a sign the cold and distance caught up with her late.