Boilermaker 5K F45-49: Lewis Runs Away With It in the Heat

• Stephanie Lewis (Edmond, OK) wins in 23:27 at a 7:33/mi clip — nearly 30 seconds clear of the field.
• Sara Groh (Clinton, NY) takes 2nd in 23:56 (7:42/mi), the only other finisher under 24 minutes.
• Agnieszka Kwiatkowska and Sheri Podagrosi battle to a near-identical finish — 4th in 26:35 and 5th in 26:36, just one second apart.
• 168 women contested F45-49 on a warm Utica afternoon — 84°F with humidity pushing the effort higher for every one of them.

With the thermometer at 84°F and humidity at 54%, Stephanie Lewis ran like the conditions didn't apply to her. The 45-year-old from Edmond, Oklahoma, crossed in 23:27 at a 7:33/mi average — a commanding wire-to-wire statement that left the rest of F45-49 chasing air. Her margin of victory was 29 seconds, which in a 5K is a substantial gap, and no one in a field of 168 came close to bridging it.

Sara Groh of Clinton, New York, was the only other runner to break 24 minutes, finishing 2nd in 23:56 at 7:42/mi. Carla Ryan (Whitesboro, NY) rounded out the podium in 3rd at 25:24, more than a minute and a half back — putting the real competition for the top two spots firmly in a class of their own. Ryan's 8:11/mi pace was solid on a tough weather day, but the gap to Groh made 3rd place its own race entirely.

The most gripping moment lower in the results came between 4th and 5th. Agnieszka Kwiatkowska (Whitesboro, NY) held off fellow Whitesboro runner Sheri Podagrosi by a single second — 26:35 to 26:36 — with Catherine Visalli (also Whitesboro) finishing 6th at 27:06. Whitesboro clearly brought its contingent to Utica. Meanwhile, the top-20 stretched from 23:27 down to 30:17, with Jennifer Zupan (Sandy Hook, CT) closing out the visible results at 9:45/mi — a reminder that in 84-degree heat, finishing 20th in a 168-woman field is no small thing.