Long Beach Half Marathon 2025: Charlton storms home to claim F25-29

• Lauren Charlton won the F25-29 race in 1:16:36 (5:51/mi), surging from 3rd among women at the first checkpoint to lead the entire women's field by the finish.
• Hannah Chau held 2nd in 1:16:54 — just 18 seconds back — while Katie Alvarenga closed hard with the fastest women's split on the middle segment to rocket from 14th to 3rd (1:18:08).
• The top three were separated by only 1:32, with a significant gap back to 4th-place Emily Suarez (1:25:37).
• 1,398 women aged 25–29 finished this race — one of the largest single-age-band fields of the morning.

Lauren Charlton didn't lead from the gun. Through the first 5.5 miles she sat 3rd among the women, running patient and controlled. But from mile 10.8 to the finish, she unleashed the fastest women's closing split in the entire field — and that was that. Her 1:16:36 at 5:51/mi wasn't just a win in the F25-29 field; it moved her from 3rd to 1st among all women and she never relinquished it.

Hannah Chau pushed her every step of the way. The Huntington Beach runner tracked Charlton's shoulder through the first half, posting the 2nd-fastest women's split on the 5.5M–10.8M segment, and ultimately crossed in 1:16:54 at 5:52/mi. Eighteen seconds is a real margin, but it required a genuine finishing kick from Charlton to build it — Chau gave her nothing for free.

The most dramatic story of the race belonged to Katie Alvarenga. Starting in 14th among women, the Northridge runner ran the fastest women's split of anyone on the middle segment (5.5M–10.8M) — faster even than Chau on that stretch — and vaulted all the way to 3rd, finishing in 1:18:08 at 5:58/mi. She held that position to the line, completing a chase that covered eleven places through the back half of the course.

Behind the podium, Emily Suarez (4th, 1:25:37) and Nicole Lindsay (5th, 1:26:10) both ran strong second halves — each posting top-13 women's splits on the closing segment — to hold their places, while Haley Bates (6th, 1:28:01) and Yiqing Lu (7th, 1:28:18) rounded out a competitive top ten. The field stretched deep, with Uyen Thu Natalie Pham (10th, 1:34:20) through Andrea Gonzalez (20th, 1:39:48) representing a wide range of effort across a 1,398-strong group.