Masters Women at Boston 2026: Sara Hall Wins It at 5:48 Pace

• Sara Hall, 2:31:55 (5:48/mi) — Masters Women champion, crossing in what was 21st among all women at the finish.
• Lisa Weightman, 2:32:41 — runner-up by 46 seconds, posting the 21st-fastest women's split on the 5K–10K stretch in the early going.
• Desiree Linden, 2:35:49 — third, moving up steadily all race and logging the 20th-fastest women's split on the 30K–20M segment late in the race.
• Laura Pifer, 2:37:33 — fourth, the race's most consistent mover, climbing from 57th among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 36th by the finish.

Sara Hall ran the kind of race that makes a cold April morning in Boston feel electric. Starting conservatively — she was 3rd among women through the early miles — Hall gradually settled into a rhythm, and by the time the field thinned, she had done enough to claim the Masters Women title in 2:31:55, averaging a brisk 5:48 per mile through Hopkinton, Newton, and all the way down Boylston. Her 13th-fastest women's split on the 15K–20K stretch was a sign she was running her own race rather than chasing the pack, and it paid off.

Lisa Weightman gave chase, finishing just 46 seconds back in 2:32:41 — a gap that sounds small but represents real distance at that pace. Weightman's early aggression showed in her 21st-fastest women's split on the 5K–10K segment, but she couldn't quite reel Hall in over the final miles. Desiree Linden, third in 2:35:49, was the race's most recognizable name and ran a characteristically patient race — 42nd among women at the opening checkpoint, she ground her way to 30th by the finish, with a strong 20th-fastest women's split on the 30K–20M stretch showing she had plenty left in the tank when others were fading.

Laura Pifer was perhaps the most relentless mover in the Masters Women field, climbing from 57th among women at the first checkpoint to 36th at the line, finishing fourth in 2:37:33 at 6:01 per mile. Maria Lindberg rounded out the top five in 2:40:30, though her trajectory ran in the opposite direction — 30th among women early, she drifted back to 49th by the finish. Behind them, Karen Bertasso (2:41:25), Polly Cunes (2:43:07), and Laena Romond (2:43:35) filled out a top eight separated by under two minutes — a testament to how competitive this 6,862-strong Masters Women field was on a cool, breezy Patriot's Day in Boston.