Josh Whitehead won the 26th annual Recover From the Holidays 50K in record time Tuesday morning at the John Hunt Park cross country course.
Whitehead, 46, of Madison, finished in 3:38, a pace of 7:04 per mile over the grass course. It was his first time to run the event in seven years. Whitehead’s time was fifth-fastest in Recover history. That gives him four of the race’s top five times including Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5. David Riddle holds the third-best time, set in 2007, and Whitehead’s time bumped Dewayne Satterfield’s fifth-best 3:43 set in 1999.
Malia Gill won the women’s division in 4:41, with a pace of 9:06 per mile. It was her third-fastest time for a marathon. Gill is a member of the Team Rocket Tri Club and completed the Ironman Florida in Panama City Beach last November. She won the Huntsville Sprint Tri and Racin’ the Station duathlon, as well.
Runners complete 10 laps of 3 miles over the course, which was tweaked by race directors this year. They added the hill of the old Recover course, giving runners two big hills per loop. The first mile is an out-and-back, and then runners have 10 3-mile loops. The John Hunt running park is on the site of the old Huntsville Muni golf course. It offers grass and chipped-rubber paths.
Recover From the Holidays is an old-school ultra. Runners are self supported, and many knock out a few laps for fun, training or all of them. It’s a solid course to set a PR, run a first ultra, try new shoes or gear, and have fun. It has an 8-hour cutoff.
The event is put on by the Huntsville Track Club.
This story will be updated with more results.
