Boston Marathon F75-79: Jeannie Rice rules Hopkinton to Copley Square

• Jeannie Rice wins the F75-79 age group in 4:27:17 (10:12/mi), more than seven minutes clear of the field.
• Jan Brett runs the strongest closing stretch of any finisher in the group, climbing from outside the top 10,000 women at the start to 10,063rd by the finish — a sustained move through the second half — and takes 2nd in 4:34:42.
• Sue Landa and Dorothy Rusch run the same late segment (24M→40K) at similar efforts, finishing 3rd in 4:55:04 and 4th in 5:07:26 respectively.
• Twelve women completed the 129th Boston Marathon in F75-79, from Rice's 4:27:17 down to Patty Hung's 6:02:57 — a spread of 1:35:40 across the group.

On a cool, calm Patriots' Day — 50°F and barely a breeze — conditions were about as friendly as Boston ever offers, and Jeannie Rice made the most of them. The Ohio runner crossed from Hopkinton to Copley Square in 4:27:17, averaging 10:12 per mile to win the F75-79 age group by seven minutes and 25 seconds. That margin was never really in doubt: Rice's gender place in the broader women's field held remarkably steady from 30K onward, settling around 9,660th among thousands of women — a sign of consistent, controlled running through the Newton hills and beyond.

Jan Brett told a different story. The Massachusetts runner was outside the top 10,500 women at the halfway point, but she kept picking people off — moving to 10,150th by 20 miles and cracking the top 10,050 by the finish. Her 21M→35K split was among the stronger segments she ran all day, and the result was a clear 2nd-place finish in 4:34:42 (10:29/mi). Sue Landa (4:55:04, 11:15/mi) and Dorothy Rusch (5:07:26, 11:44/mi) rounded out the top four, both showing steady if slightly fading tracks through the final miles.

The back half of the field brought its own drama of endurance. Que Pham (5th, 5:21:37) and Terri Hillestad (6th, 5:25:08) were separated by less than four minutes, while Susan Waisbren (7th, 5:40:38), Ursula Uhlir (8th, 5:47:57), Tonka Zadnikar (9th, 5:49:43), and Hisako Oguma (10th, 5:50:18) were bunched within just two and a half minutes of one another. Ikuko Hampton finished 11th in 5:56:03, and Patty Hung closed out the group in 6:02:57 — every one of them covering 26.2 miles from Hopkinton to Copley on a day that belongs, first and last, to Jeannie Rice.