With the 47th Rocket City Marathon women’s title in hand, Maura Lemon couldn’t hold back her burst of joy at the finish line.
Lemon zoomed into the Von Braun Center South Hall rear entrance with arms and hands outstretched. Imagine a kid out on a windy day pretending to be an airplane or rocket, giant perma-grin and no worries in the world. That was Lemon on Sunday morning, less than three hours after starting the marathon in front of the VBC.
The 34-year-old from Dayton, Ohio, finished the marathon in 2:47:04, a solid 6:23 pace. She won by three minutes.
“This is great! How cool!” Lemon told TVO, still with a huge smile. “Wow! This is just awesome. I won the Front Half Marathon last year and that was cool, so I wanted to come back and do the whole marathon. I think that front half is less scenic than the back half, for sure, and then you get to run out with the rockets and through the botanical garden on the way in. Those are just awesome. I loved it. And I’m glad it didn’t rain.”
Running is a family affair with Lemon, and the family is pretty darn competitive. There must be something in the Dayton water. Her brother, Chris, finished third in the marathon and was runner-up in 2022. Her sister-in-law, Lizzie Gleason, zoomed to the Front Half Marathon win Sunday in 1:21. Her brother-in-law works in Huntsville for Boeing.
Gameplan? Check!
Lemon, like men’s marathon winner David Too, lined out a gameplan and then executed it to perfection. This was her 11th marathon. She won the 2018 Glass City Marathon in record time (2:45:37) and the 2016 Akron Half Marathon (1:18:25).
“I wanted to sit back a little bit, to see what the lead females were doing and how everything was going to shake out,” she said. “At around the 10K mark (about 6 miles), I caught up to the woman who was in the lead and we worked together for a couple of miles. Then I was just I was feeling good, so I dropped the hammer a little bit and started splitting off wth a little faster than my 6:20 pace, which was my goal pace.
“I just just kept feeling good until the final few miles or so when we hit a headwind. I had a biker with me (in front, for safety) and we hit a headwind, probably around 23 or 24. That was really that was rough. Actually, the last, the last 10K was rougher than I thought it was going to be just because of the wind. But man, all the energy coming around that corner and into the into the finish line was amazing. This is just awesome.”
The RCM is put on by the Huntsville Track Club and presented by the Huntsville Sports Commission.
See all of the 48th Rocket City Marathon results here, and all age group results here.
