F65-69: Park and Weisman Stage a Breathtaking Duel at CIM

• Iris Park wins F65-69 in 3:32:37 (8:07/mi), edging Jill Weisman by just 16 seconds after 26.2 miles.
• Weisman ran the stronger first half, entering the women's field as high as 662nd among women before gradually fading; Park came from 1,265th among women at the first checkpoint to 823rd by the finish — a relentless surge through the pack.
• Sue Francis posted the fastest early split, sitting 354th among women through 5K before a difficult second half dropped her to 3rd in F65-69 at 3:54:37.
• 38 women finished in F65-69, with the top two separated by a margin that amounts to roughly two city blocks after more than three hours of racing.

The headline result in F65-69 was as tight as they come. Iris Park, 65, of Porter Ranch crossed in 3:32:37, with Jill Weisman — also 65, from Santa Monica — right on her heels at 3:32:53. Both women averaged 8:07 per mile across the full 26.2, but the race unfolded very differently for each of them. Weisman ran with the front of the women's field early, sitting 662nd among women at the 5K mark and holding steady through the halfway point. Park, meanwhile, was buried back in 1,265th place among women at that same early checkpoint — and spent the rest of the morning hunting her way forward.

That forward momentum is what ultimately defined Park's victory. She moved from 957th among women at 15K to 880th by 30K and 823rd at the finish, trimming time consistently through every segment. Weisman's trajectory told the opposite story: from 662nd she drifted to 671st, then 731st, then 819th and finally 829th among women — a gradual fade that Park's relentless closing pace was perfectly calibrated to exploit. Sixteen seconds separated them at the tape. It was that kind of race.

Behind the top two, Sue Francis of Ojai delivered one of the more dramatic splits of the day. She was a remarkable 354th among women through 5K, running well ahead of pace, but the Half→30K segment proved costly — she posted the 1,336th-fastest women's split on that stretch — and she finished 3rd in F65-69 in 3:54:37. Mary Ferguson (4th, 3:57:21) and Adria Schozer (5th, 4:02:37) rounded out the top five, with Young-Sook Kwon (6th, 4:02:55) and Jane Nicholson (7th, 4:03:52) completing a tightly bunched middle of the field.