Rocket City Half Marathon — F45-49: Clayton dominates in the cold

• Jenny Clayton (48, Franklin TN) won the F45-49 group in 1:32:23 — a 7:03/mi pace that placed her 10th among all women on a 29°F morning in Huntsville.
• Clayton's margin was commanding: runner-up Angie Walker finished in 1:44:40 — more than 12 minutes back.
• Walker made up ground late: she moved from 38th to 31st among women on the second half (6.8M to finish), posting the 26th-fastest women's split on that stretch.
• The podium was tight below second: Anne Harbarger (1:45:34) trailed Walker by just 54 seconds for 3rd in the F45-49 group.

The conditions were brutal by any measure — 29°F, a 16 mph wind, and clear skies that offered no shelter — but Jenny Clayton treated the Rocket City Half like a training run. Her 7:03/mi average was in a different category from the rest of the F45-49 field, and she held her 10th-place standing among all women from the midpoint straight through the finish line, never wavering. The 10th-fastest women's split on the back half confirmed she didn't coast home either.

Behind Clayton, the real race was a two-woman contest between Angie Walker and Anne Harbarger. Walker, running out of Hattiesburg, was the stronger closer — her 26th-fastest women's split on the 6.8M-to-finish stretch helped her climb seven spots in the women's field over the second half. Harbarger, a Huntsville local, held firm with the 33rd-fastest women's closing split and crossed in 1:45:34, keeping the gap to Walker to under a minute.

Fourth place went to Amy Owens (1:51:02), who faded slightly on the back stretch — dropping from 45th to 51st among women — while Jamie Schlichter had the toughest second half of the top five, slipping from 52nd to 76th among women after the midpoint to finish 5th in 1:54:42. The F45-49 group sent 59 women across the line in all, with the top 20 ranging from Clayton's 1:32:23 down to Laurel Wilson's 2:12:36 — a 40-minute spread that tells the story of a deep, competitive field grinding through a cold Alabama December morning.