The story
Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville
The Rocket City Marathon is an annual USA Track and Field-certified marathon and half marathon held each December in Huntsville, Alabama, organized by the Huntsville Track Club. Named for Huntsville's identity as home to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, the course draws runners chasing Boston Marathon qualifying times on a flat, fast winter route.
Huntsville's transformation from a small cotton-market town into a center of American rocketry began after World War II, when Wernher von Braun's team of engineers relocated to Redstone Arsenal and later helped found NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, developing the Saturn V rocket that carried astronauts to the Moon.