Boston Marathon F70-74: Simmons Leads a Stellar Age-Group Charge to Copley Square

• Andrea Simmons won the F70-74 group in 3:45:56 (8:37/mi), steadily climbing through the women's field across all six checkpoints.
• Dawn Ebbetts finished 2nd in 3:47:23 — just 87 seconds back — after a strong late push on the 40K–25.2M stretch moved her up the women's standings.
• Therese Christo rounded out the podium in 3:50:11 (8:47/mi), running a measured race that held position through the final miles.
• Five women broke 3:56 in this group — a testament to the depth at the top of the F70-74 field on a cool, near-ideal Patriots' Day.

Andrea Simmons set the tone from the gun, and she never relinquished it. Running 8:37/mi, she moved steadily — if not explosively — through the women's field at every checkpoint, ticking from 6,827th among women at the first split all the way to 6,229th by the finish. That kind of consistent forward movement over 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Copley Square is a sign of disciplined pacing, and it earned her the F70-74 title in 3:45:56.

Dawn Ebbetts of New Hampshire had a very different race shape. She was well back in the women's standings early — 8,408th at the first checkpoint — but she ran herself into contention with a strong middle stretch, climbing nearly 2,000 places among women by 40K. Her 40K–25.2M split was notably quick for the group, and she closed in 3:47:23 to land 87 seconds behind Simmons. That gap is real, but so is the fact that Ebbetts was the faster runner late in the race — a classic catch-up story that fell just short.

Therese Christo of New York ran the most even race of the podium trio, moving from 7,679th to 6,776th among women with steady, incremental progress at every checkpoint on her way to a 3:50:11 finish. Behind her, the 4th-and-5th-place battle was the tightest of the day: Debra Isser (DE) crossed in 3:54:58 and Lucy Mccausland (DE) in 3:55:03 — just five seconds apart after more than three and a half hours of racing. Merry Dearmon of Arizona added a sixth sub-3:56 finish at 3:55:46, making this one of the deepest stretches at the front of any age group on the course. All told, 71 women completed Boston in the F70-74 group — every one of them earning their place on this point-to-point stage.