Hannah, On The Clock
A Data Feature · Vol. I · 04.2026
Alabama · 2019 — 2026  ·  45 Starts Analyzed  ·  6 Distances

She started at two forty-two. Six years later she broke two hours.

What 45 start lines look like in numbers — a half-marathon that shed 42 minutes, a 5K that lost four, and a first marathon finished before the year was out.

Hannah ran her first race — a 10K — in the spring of 2019. She followed it, that November, with a half marathon in Huntsville that took her two hours and forty-two minutes. Seven years and three pairs of shoes later, she ran the same distance in one minute under two.

The chart on the next page traces that arc. Nine half marathons, plotted by finishing time, bending downward from the top-left to the bottom-right — each dot a Saturday, each inch of descent a season of training.

Figure 01 · Half Marathon
Seven years of half marathons, one barrier to cross.
Each dot is a race. The dashed line is 2:00:00 — a marker runners know by feel long before they reach it.
2:42 2:30 2:19 2:08 1:57 2:00:00 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2:42:05 Huntsville ’19 2:10:53 2:07:38 2:06:56 1:59:28 — under the line by 32 seconds. Her first half, pre-pandemic.
Figure 01 · Half Marathon · 9 starts · Times plotted as elapsed minutes.Δ −42:37
42:37
Half PR minus Debut
3:59
5K PR minus Debut
6
Overall wins
4:57:55
First marathon
"The 2:00 mark isn't a wall. It's a door. She knocked for two years, then walked through." — Race log, Boston or Bust Half · April 2025
Section II

The 5K, taken apart.

Twenty-one 5Ks in four years. The fastest — 24:39 on a slightly short Arbor Day course in April 2025 — is three minutes and fifty-nine seconds faster than her 2022 debut. The chart below shows every 5K, arranged by year. One anomaly: the 30:20 at Go for Gold in summer 2024, her only 5K slower than 29 minutes, came during recovery from an injury that cost her Cotton Row.

Figure 02 · 5K small multiples
Every 5K, by year.
Each bar is a race. Taller = slower. Red = fastest of the year.
2022 1 race
28:38
Fastest: 28:38 · Double Helix
2023 7 races
Fastest: 25:00 · Arbor Day (short)
2024 7 races
Fastest: 25:10 · Arbor Day (short)
2025 6 races
Fastest: 24:39PR
Figure 02 · 5K starts only · 21 races total · Excludes 2022 Double Helix for scale clarityΔ −3:59
Section III

The same races, getting shorter.

Huntsville's standing rematches.

Four races appear on Hannah's schedule year after year. Measured against themselves, they show a runner who keeps coming back faster.

Winter Winds — a short two-miler and a four-miler in the same morning — is perhaps the cleanest tell: her 2-mile dropped 42 seconds between 2023 and 2025.

Year over year.

2019Cotton Row 10K1:00:37
2022Cotton Row 10K58:44
2024Cotton Row 10K— injured —
2023Winter Winds 2mi16:38
2024Winter Winds 2mi16:29
2025Winter Winds 2mi15:56 ★
2026Winter Winds 2mi17:05
2022Bridge Street Half2:10:53
2024Bridge Street Half2:06:56
2025Bridge Street Half2:04:33
2023Boston or Bust Half2:14:40
2025Boston or Bust Half1:59:28 ★
Figure 03 · Volume
The calendar fills up.
Races per year, all distances. 2024's dip was injury; 2025 was the breakthrough year.
2 2019 2020 2021 4 2022 13 2023 11 2024 13 ★ 2025 3 2026 (in progress) + first marathon, PR-filled.
Figure 03 · Race volume by year · 45 total starts across 2019–2026 to dateSource: personal log
Coda

What the chart won't tell you.

The data can fit on one page. A race log is just numbers in a column — 26:48 here, 2:06:56 there, a note in the margin that says sick or injured or course short. It doesn't mention the 5 a.m. training runs, the Sunday longs that turned into winter mornings, the pair of shoes that had to be replaced twice in 2025.

The chart shows a line bending downward. What it leaves out is that lines like that are made of a thousand smaller decisions — to show up, to go again, to keep a schedule even when the schedule is inconvenient. The numbers are only the residue.

Still, the residue is telling. Four distance PRs. Six finish-line tapes broken. One half marathon that finally came in under two hours, and one full marathon that came in under five. The chart ends in April 2026 with three races logged and a Cookie Dash pending.

The line keeps going.

§
Numbers current as of April 21, 2026. Next start line: Cookie Dash 5K, date pending. The clock resets.
—   FIN