W80-89: Lomo Portela Leads the Way for the Octogenarians

• Ana Maria Lomo Portela, 81, won the W80-89 group in 3:54:45 — a 17:54/mi average across 13.1 miles of New York City streets.
• Yue Qin Fu, 85, completed the course in 5:20:54, a remarkable finish for the oldest athlete in the group.
• Lomo Portela gained 1,613 places among women between the start and the finish, closing with the 10,672nd-fastest women's split on the 20K-to-finish stretch.
• The gap between the two finishers was 1:26:09 — a wide margin, but both crossed the line in 40°F conditions on a course that ran from Prospect Park to Central Park.

Just two athletes lined up in the W80-89 age group at the 2026 United Airlines NYC Half, but what they represent is extraordinary: two women in their eighties running a half marathon through New York City in mid-March. Lomo Portela, 81, making the trip from La Laguna in the Canary Islands, took the win in 3:54:45, holding a 17:54/mi pace across all 13.1 miles.

What made Lomo Portela's race particularly compelling was her relentless forward momentum through the women's field. She entered the 20K checkpoint ranked 11,746th among women and finished 11,711th — but her closing split, the 10,672nd-fastest among women on that final stretch, shows she was still pushing when many others were fading in the cold. She moved from 13,324th among women at the opening checkpoint all the way to 11,711th at the finish — a gain of over 1,600 places.

Yue Qin Fu, 85 and running out of New York, brought a different kind of grit. Her 5:20:54 — a 24:29/mi average — reflects the sheer endurance required to keep moving for that long. Her position among women held remarkably steady throughout the race, drifting only slightly from 15,198th to 15,231st, a sign of consistent, measured effort from start to finish.

Two finishers. Two octogenarians. One winner. In a half marathon field of thousands, that's a story worth telling on its own.