F70-74: Lee Catella Runs Away With It in Utica's Heat

• Lee Catella, 72, wins in 1:16:47 (8:14/mi), finishing 3:45 ahead of runner-up Therese Christo.
• Catella's second-half surge was the 273rd-fastest women's split on that stretch — a climb through the women's field from 465th to 309th after the halfway mark.
• Therese Christo (1:20:32) and Cheryl Guth (1:23:11) both closed strongly, each posting top-500 women's splits on the 10K-to-finish stretch to lock up 2nd and 3rd.
• 33 finishers completed the F70-74 race, ranging from Catella's 8:14/mi down to a determined back of the pack navigating 9.3 miles of Utica in 88% humidity.

Lee Catella of Oneonta put on a masterclass in patient racing. She entered the women's field ranked 1,166th through the early going, but by the halfway point she had climbed to 465th among women — and then kept right on moving, finishing 309th. Her winning time of 1:16:47 at an 8:14/mi clip was a full 3:45 clear of the field, and her second-half split ranked 273rd among all women on that stretch. That's not a 72-year-old hanging on — that's a 72-year-old racing.

The battle for the podium behind her was its own story. Therese Christo, 70, of Greece, NY, ran 1:20:32 (8:38/mi) to claim 2nd, posting the 322nd-fastest women's split from 10K to the finish — a strong close that carried her from 865th among women at the 10K mark all the way to 474th by the line. Cheryl Guth, also 70, from Rochester, matched that energy: her 462nd-fastest women's closing split lifted her from 976th to 616th, and she crossed in 1:23:11 (8:55/mi) to secure 3rd.

Shirley Myers, 72, of Kingston, Ontario — the lone international finisher on the leaderboard — took 4th in 1:25:13, and Virginia Truax, 70, of Clayville rounded out the top five in 1:28:16. Anne Lytwynec (6th, 1:29:20) and Carolyn Burke George (7th, 1:31:09) kept the competition tight through the top half of the field. All 33 finishers earned their medal on a humid July morning in Utica — but it was Catella who made it look like a workout.