Carson Miller’s determined start held up Wednesday morning as he won the 27th annual Recover from the Holidays 50K in record time at John Hunt Park.
Miller, 36, of Madison, took off at the 7 a.m. start with an aggressive pace. Some onlookers wondered if he could maintain it over 10 laps of the 3.1-mile grass course. With sunny but cold conditions and his two closest pursuers set to pounce, Miller never waivered and won by more than 11 minutes.
Lucy Littlejohn, 18, of Auburn, won the women’s title and finished sixth overall. She posted a time of 4:33:25.
Miles Scarano, 32, of Huntsville, was second in his ultramarathon debut, finishing in 3:49:26. Beck Mitchell, 38, of Madison, was third in 3:49:57. They and Miller were the only runners with times of less than four hours.
Miller’s time of 3:38:03 was fourth-best in Recover history, bumping Josh Whitehead’s 2012 time to fifth place in the T-10 list. Miller and Whitehead also are the only two runners to post a T-10 time in the last 10 years. Miller’s winning time also bumps Dink Taylor’s 1995 time (3:48) from 10th to 11th and off the list.
Only the late Dewayne Satterfield holds a T-10 spot dating to the ’90s, with his 3:43 in 1999 the final one from that decade. He has two record entries. Whitehead, from Madison, has five, including one from last year.
Lisa Gates and Linda Royce also finished in the top 10 Wednesday with solid times. Gates, 42, of Huntsville, was eighth in 4:45:06. Royce, 42, of Meridianville, was 10th in 4:43:46. Royce recently topped 103 miles in 23:56:10 at the Endless Mile in Alabaster.
Low Key and Fun
The Recover 50K is the final big event of the year, held annually on Dec. 31 and begun as a no-frills “get off the couch” event.
Huntsville Track Club founding member Harold Tinsley, in his history of area races, offers this:
Prior to 2009, this was originally a low key race started by Dink Taylor called Fat Ass 50; there were a number (of these) around the country on December 31 each year. It became a formal HTC race in 2009. This is a trail race held on the Huntsville Running Park 3-mile loop trail. From just a few runners in the beginning it has grown significantly over the years.
Today the event is at John Hunt Park running course, which holds numerous local, high school and NCAA events. The 50K is on the grassy portion and includes a wee hill on the south side. Old timers know that hill as where the Plush Horse once rocked. True old timers know that area as what was the end of the runway on the Huntsville Airport, before it moved out west of Madison. Planes would taxi onto the runway and then back up (south) toward the hill before takeoff.
The 50K course has changed over the years. It originally was a narrow loop that incorporated the wee hill a couple of times. Then it changed and got flatter, and has changed a couple of times since. Race co-director Rob Youngren brought back the hill this year, giving the max field of 110 runners a little workout on each of the 10 loops.
See all of the results here.
