Boston 2026: Juliet Hershey-Beatty Leads a Blazing F50-54 Podium

• Hershey-Beatty wins in 2:56:16 (6:43/mi), becoming the fastest F50-54 finisher in a field of 1,233.
• 53 seconds covered the top four: Hershey-Beatty (2:56:16), Bueker (2:57:09), Trigg (2:57:36), and Nasky (2:58:00) — four women in under two minutes of racing.
• Sarah Trigg ran the strongest finish of the podium, posting the 162nd-fastest women's split on the brutal 35K-to-23M stretch — the sharpest single-segment ranking among the top five.
• Sara Girotto's first half was electric: she moved from 763rd among women to 452nd between the gun and the 5K mark, the biggest early surge in the top five.

Juliet Hershey-Beatty from New York ran a controlled, intelligent race. She entered the women's field somewhere around 596th at the early checkpoints, then steadily reeled in competitors through the middle miles — reaching as high as 297th among women by the halfway point. She held that position deep into the race before settling at 358th among women at the finish, all while sustaining a 6:43/mi average that no one in the F50-54 group could match. Her 249th-fastest women's split on the 15K-to-20K segment — right through the Newton hills — shows she was moving with purpose exactly when others were beginning to hurt.

Shannon Bueker of Virginia took second in 2:57:09, running a remarkably consistent race that improved steadily through the back half. Her 349th-fastest women's split on the 25K-to-30K segment helped her climb from 477th among women at that stage all the way to 408th by the finish. Third went to Sarah Trigg, also of New York, who ran one of the more dramatic progressions of the day — 650th among women early, then a relentless climb to 439th by the end, fueled by that standout late-race split.

Iris Nasky (Washington) and Sara Girotto (Pennsylvania) rounded out the top five within 14 seconds of each other, both finishing under 2:58:15. The top 20 were all under 3:09, and Lixia Li of California just missed the podium in sixth at 2:58:18 — a mere two seconds behind Girotto. On a cool, overcast Boston morning with a light tailwind, the F50-54 group delivered one of the tightest, fastest podium battles of the day.