W30-34: Lokedi Owns the Age Group with a 1:07:10 Blitz

• Sharon Lokedi won the W30-34 group in 1:07:10 (5:07/mi), nearly two minutes clear of the field and holding 2nd among all women at the finish.
• Emily Sisson ran the strongest second half of the top three, posting the 4th-fastest women's split from 15K to 20K on her way to a 1:09:06 runner-up finish.
• Dakotah Popehn sealed 3rd with the 9th-fastest women's closing split (20K to finish), edging clear in the final stretch to clock 1:10:06.
• A gap of 6:06 separated 1st from 10th — and more than 3,000 women aged 30–34 finished this race.

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Sharon Lokedi ran a near-flawless race from Prospect Park to Central Park. She sat 3rd among all women through the opening 15K, then shifted gears — posting the 2nd-fastest women's split from 15K to 20K — to move up to 2nd among the women overall, a position she held to the tape. At 5:07 per mile across 13.1 miles on a crisp 40°F morning, this was a performance built on control and a well-timed surge.

Emily Sisson made her move in the same stretch. Starting the race 9th among women, she'd climbed to 6th by the 15K mark and then used that same 15K-to-20K segment — the 4th-fastest women's split on that leg — to hold her ground. Her 1:09:06 finish at 5:16/mi put her nearly a full minute clear of 3rd place and made the W30-34 podium a study in late-race acceleration.

Dakotah Popehn of Hopkins, MN rounded out the podium with a 1:10:06. She ran a steady, if unspectacular, middle portion of the race before coming alive in the final 2K, logging the 9th-fastest women's closing split to secure 3rd. Behind her, Calli Hauger-Thackery — Lokedi's fellow Flagstaff runner — was the story of the early miles, posting the 16th-fastest women's split from 5K to 10K en route to a 1:13:16 for 4th.

Grace Heymsfield (1:14:30) and Emily Durgin (1:14:45) rounded out the top six, separated by just 15 seconds. Local runners had a strong showing too — Heymsfield and Alosha Southern both representing Brooklyn in the top seven of a 3,010-woman age group that stretched from 1:07 to well beyond 1:23 across the listed finishers.