W45-49: Kelly Wickstrom Wins NYC Half in 1:25:36

• Wickstrom's 6:32/mi average was the class of the W45-49 field, finishing more than two minutes clear of runner-up Alison Steele (1:27:50).
• Minji Wong's closing kick was the story of the podium battle — she posted the 82nd-fastest women's split on the 20K→Finish stretch to overtake Leah Mark and claim 3rd in 1:28:19, with Mark 34 seconds back in 4th.
• Steele was the steadiest climber in the women's field, moving from 253rd among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 182nd by the finish.
• A deep field of 1,207 finishers made W45-49 one of the most competitive age groups on the course.

Kelly Wickstrom, 48, from New York, ran a composed and increasingly dominant race through the streets of the city she calls home. She sat 186th among women early on, but by the time the course reached Central Park she had climbed all the way to 114th — a gain of 72 places in the women's field across the second half of the race. Her 71st-fastest women's split on the second half of the course tells the story: she was still accelerating when others were holding on.

Behind her, the podium took shape in the final kilometers. Alison Steele, 45, made the trip from Niwot, Colorado worthwhile with a measured, front-to-back progression — she never stopped moving forward, eventually landing 2nd in 1:27:50 at 6:42/mi. Minji Wong, 46, took a different path entirely. She was actually slipping backward through the middle miles — 244th among women at 10K, 257th at 15K — before unleashing a finishing stretch that was the 82nd-fastest women's split on the 20K-to-finish segment. That surge was enough to edge Leah Mark, who was fading slightly herself after a strong mid-race position, and claim 3rd in 1:28:19.

Further back, the places between 5th and 13th produced some of the most tangled racing of the day. Camillia Mankovich (1:31:57), Michelle Andres (1:31:59), and Sarah Wells (1:31:03) all finished within a minute of each other, with Wells technically 6th despite running slower than Mankovich and Andres — a reminder that timing precision, not displayed minutes alone, determines the final order. On a crisp 40-degree morning with barely a breath of wind, the conditions were about as good as New York in March can offer, and the W45-49 group made full use of them.