One of the city’s oldest races, the Huntsville Half Marathon, is set for its 48th renewal Saturday at Hillwood Baptist Church.
More than 700 are registered for the race, which begins at 8 a.m. Runners will follow a course through adjacent neighborhoods before returning to the finish line at the church. It is sponsored by Fleet Feet Huntsville/Madison and presented by the Huntsville Track Club.
A new winner will be crowned, as defending champ Josh Whitehead of Madison is not in the field. He won three of the last four, and 10 overall. The course is flat enough to provide solid opportunities for state age records. Weather forecasts have lows in the low 30s and highs in the mid-50s.
Old Bones
The Huntsville Half Marathon is one of three races in the city approaching a half-century of competition. It is the second-oldest of the three. The oldest is the Rocket City Marathon in December. It is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Third is the Huntsville Sprint Triathlon, held for 46 years and put on by the Team Rocket Tri Club. It has a 400-meter swim, 8-mile bike ride and 3-mile run.
Saturday’s race will have a strong field, as usual, with several runners to watch. Nathaniel Pierce of Madison won the Sprint Tri this summer. He has come close in the Huntsville Half the last two years with second- and third-place finishes. Dr. Erick Kigen of Huntsville should be in the mix, along with Emma Hardman and Julia Donovan.
According to Huntsville Track Club co-founder and historian Harold Tinsley, the race began as the Rocket City 20K Road Race. It was staged in November to help runners prepare for the Rocket City Marathon. Many marathoners still include it into their training plans; some incorporate the zippy-fast Ditto Landing 10K into their plans, too. The 20K is not a half marathon. It is 12.4ish miles, a little less than a mile short of the 13.1-mile half marathon.
The original Huntsville Half started on top of Monte Sano, just like the Rocket City Marathon did at the time. Over the years, as with many races, it changed names, locations, sponsors and race directors.
Half History
The one constant is that the Huntsville Half is an iconic race in the city, and state. Here is Tinsley’s account of the race and how it has evolved:
It ran on the marathon course until 1991, first coming down Bankhead Parkway the same as the marathon but finishing in Big Spring International Park downtown. The race moved with the marathon to Grissom High School in 1979 and ran on the first 20K of the marathon course.
It became the American Heart Association Rocket City 20K Road Race the second year as a fund raiser, and reverted to the Rocket City 20K Road Race in 1984. The race changed to a half-marathon in 1989. It separated from the Rocket City Marathon in 1991 and found its own home at Research Park as the McDonnell Douglas Rocket City Half Marathon.
The race remained there until it moved in 1998 to its present location in south Huntsville at the Hillwood Baptist Church. It became the Rocket City Half Marathon in 1997, the Rocket City Half Marathon & 5K in 1999, the Huntsville Half Marathon & 5K in 2004 and the Huntsville Half Marathon & Heroes 5K in 2008. The race took its current name, Huntsville Half Marathon, in 2011.
