Boilermaker 15K F40-44: Bertasso Hughes Leads a New York Sweep at the Top

• Karen Bertasso Hughes (Selkirk, NY) won the F40-44 race in 56:56 (6:07/mi), posting the 18th-fastest women's split on the 5K–10K segment and holding 18th among all women at the finish.
• Trisha Byler (Honeoye Falls, NY) was runner-up in 57:45 (6:12/mi) — just 49 seconds back — finishing 22nd among all women.
• Jennifer Boerner Selig (Elmira, NY) completed the podium in 1:01:48 (6:38/mi), running the 35th-fastest women's split on the 5K–10K stretch to hold 34th among all women.
• A field of 414 finishers braved 75°F heat and 90% humidity across Utica's streets — conditions that made every sub-57-minute effort all the more impressive.

Karen Bertasso Hughes controlled the F40-44 race from start to finish in brutal summer conditions. Running 6:07/mi across 9.3 miles of Utica heat and humidity, the 41-year-old from Selkirk held a steady 20th-place position among all women through the first half before ticking up to 18th by the finish — a clean, composed performance that left no doubt at the top of the leaderboard.

Trisha Byler gave chase and made it a genuine two-woman contest for the lead. The Honeoye Falls runner held 21st among all women through 5K, but the 5K–10K segment is where the race was decided: Bertasso Hughes posted the 18th-fastest women's split on that stretch, Byler the 21st-fastest — a meaningful gap in pace that translated to the 49-second margin at the line. Byler's 57:45 was a strong result in its own right, good for 22nd among all women.

Jennifer Boerner Selig of Elmira ran a different kind of race — patient and progressive. She sat 37th among women at 5K, then reeled in runners on the middle segment with the 35th-fastest women's split from 5K to 10K, and held 34th all the way to the finish in 1:01:48. The gap back to fourth-place Elizabeth Riccardi (Syracuse, 1:03:30, 6:49/mi) was nearly two minutes, so the podium was never in serious jeopardy down the stretch.

Behind the top three, the F40-44 field spread out across a wide range of finishing times, with Stacie Minchoff (Plattsburgh, 1:03:57) and Danielle Hofmann (Schenectady, 1:06:08) rounding out the top six. Further back, Julie Kallies (Clinton, 1:09:51) and Michelle Gordon (Alexandria, ON, 1:09:58) finished just seven seconds apart in 9th and 10th — one of the tightest battles in the group on a day when the heat made every second count.