Andrew Taylor won the 48th Rocket City Marathon, holding off a surging Joshua Moore in the final miles to win his second marathon this year.
Taylor, a 24-year-old from Hilliard, Ohio, finished in 2:28:10, besting Moore by a few ticks on the clock. Moore, 33, of Hattiesburg, Miss., crossed in 2:28:37. Moore closed a gap of 2:01 to less than 30 seconds in the final four miles of the race.
Gatlin Holland, 29, of Birmingham, was third in 2:29:08. Paul Matuzak of Huntington Valley, Pa., was fourth in 2:30:20.
Josh Whitehead, 46, of Madison, finished fifth in 2:39:05. He smashed the state age record for 46-year-olds, set in 1984 by Phillip Parker of Birmingham, by seven minutes. He also was the Men’s Masters winner.
Tera Moody, 43, of Bargersville, Ind., was the Women’s Masters champ in 2:50.
Taylor Battled Back
Taylor’s said he got dropped from the lead pack about three miles into the race. He didn’t fret, and battled back over the next 10 miles to catch and pass them.
“I picked them up at about the half-marathon start,” Taylor said. “We had a pack until you get to those big hills around the Space & Rocket Center. After that, it was him and me pretty much battling it out until six to go. And then you have one of those last hills in that park there. I dropped him on that one and just tried to run as hard as I could the last 10k the race.”
Taylor said the weather didn’t affect him until the final miles. It rained overnight, not torrentially like in 2021 when the race was canceled, but enough to keep the roads wet. The worst part was the wind, out of the southeast at 6-10 mph. Taylor said the final three miles was into the wind, “which is definitely harder when you’ve already run 23 miles.”
Later Sunday evening, Moore posted on a Facebook link to this story that he was pursuing Taylor and the others all day.
“… At every check point he is significantly ahead of me. At mile 21 there is a 2:01 gap. I closed that to less than 30 seconds in 4 miles,” Moore wrote. “I was in 5th place behind the pack of 4 the ENTIRE race. I passed all but Taylor in the final 4 miles. No one ran a faster final 10K than me. Until mile 22 the lead group had a 90 second – 2 minute lead on me.”
This was Taylor’s second marathon title. He won the Maintoba Marathon in May.
The Huntsville Track Club puts on the Rocket City Marathon race weekend. The events are presented by the Huntsville Sports Commission along with 15 other sponsors.
See all of the 48th Rocket City Marathon results here.
NOTE: This story has been updated with additional information from Joshua Moore offering more clarity about the race.
