Experience and patience paid off for area favorite Emma Hardman, who won the women’s division title Sunday morning in the 48th Rocket City Marathon.
Hardman, 28, of Huntsville, gained confidence over each step of the last half of the race to notch her first RCM win. She was third last year, about three minutes slower than her winning time of 2:49:27.
Hardman is the first area woman to win the race since 2018, when Alana Scarano won in 2:49:55 and was 16th overall. Hardman was 18th on Sunday. Andrew Taylor of Ohio won the overall title.
“I’ve been training really hard, so I had an idea, but I wanted to come on stronger after the half,” Hardman said. “Beck (Mitchell, of Madison) was one of the pacers. He came through right on pace at the halfway point. So I was really grateful for him and the group of people that I was with up to that point. Really, the race, mentally, to me, doesn’t start until about then. So, just being able to come through right on pace and feel decent, and then have the wheels to finish near the end, was big for me.
“Last year when I did this, I really struggled near the end. So I’m grateful for a harder finish this year. I think mentally, having one (RCM) under my belt was good because I knew the pain, and I wasn’t so caught off guard this year like last year.
Tera Moody, 43, of Bargersville, Ind., was second (22nd overall) in 2:50, and also the Women’s Masters champ. Gisela Olalde of Nashville was third (23rd) in 2:51. Megan Allan of Huntsville was fourth in 29:05 and Meghan Arquette of Greenville, S.C., was fifth in 3:01.
Hardman: Training Paid Off
Marathon runners usually always have some niggling issue, whether it’s a tweaky knee or IT band or wonky toe . Sometimes it’s worse, hindering training or causing a shutdown despite best efforts to recover.
Hardman said a minor problem last year was instrumental in her maturity as a runner and for training. She’s had a solid year, with several titles and record finishes.
“I think healthy training is a big part of this,” she said. “The hardest part to me for any good marathoner, or really anybody in general in athletics, it’s just being healthy at the starting line. So, I’m really grateful this year to have several months of healthy training. Last year, I was injured early in the fall, and I think that may have hindered me just a bit.”
Sunday’s weather was more appropos for a Dickinson or Plath novel, with depressing skies and rain. The wind was a stinker, too, buffeting with gusts that aren’t fun to run in anytime.
But, everyone had the same conditions. The good thing about cruddy weather is it helps cull the weak. Those who whine, whimper and complain aren’t a threat. Those who ignore the “Meh” conditions, or maybe even trained in them, aren’t concerned with it.
Put Hardman in the latter camp. Living in north Alabama, runners are accustomed to summer heat and humidity, dumb “winter” weather like this weekend, Fake Autumn and Second Summer, and OMG Winter in February. You just deal with it.
“I think originally, we were all kind of bummed out about it but at the end of the day, we’re all running in the same weather,” Hardman said. “So, competitiveness is just … I know the girls in front and behind me are running in the same weather.
“The woman behind me was a fighter. She kept staying on me the whole time,” Hardman added. “I would kind of gap her, and then she’d come back. I kept an eye on her, but I think around mile 17 or 18, where it gets a little bit hillier, I was able to gap her just a bit. Then I was able to maintain that, about a 30-second gap. But she never dropped off. She was a fighter, for sure.”
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 results here.
