Long Beach Half Marathon 2025 — F50-54: Grace Padilla Runs Away With It

• Grace Padilla, 54, wins in 1:31:12 (6:57/mi) — more than five and a half minutes clear of the field.
• Jackie Okada climbs five spots in the final stretch, posting the 43rd-fastest women's split on the 10.8M→Finish to edge Dolores Castro by seven seconds for 3rd.
• Lisa King stages the biggest charge of the day, surging from 304th among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 129th by the finish — the 45th-fastest women's split on the closing stretch.
• 270 women finished in the F50-54 field, with the top 20 ranging from 1:31:12 down to 1:59:57.

Grace Padilla of Highland, CA, made this one look straightforward. Running 6:57/mi on a cool, calm Long Beach morning, the 54-year-old moved from 26th among women to 23rd through the first half before settling at 24th by the finish — a controlled, confident effort that left her 5:36 ahead of second place. That kind of margin doesn't happen by accident; it happens when the winner is simply running a different race than everyone else.

Behind her, second and third place were anything but settled. Dolores Castro of Santa Ana held the edge through most of the race, but Jackie Okada of Torrance was reeling her in. Okada had been 60th among women early on, climbed to 52nd through the middle segment, and kept pushing to 48th at the line — posting a faster closing split (43rd among women on the final stretch vs. Castro's 58th) to close a gap and finish 3rd in 1:36:55, just seven seconds behind Castro's 1:36:48. Castro held on for 2nd, but Okada made her earn it.

The race's most dramatic arc belonged to Lisa King of Long Beach. Sitting 304th among women at the first checkpoint, King found another gear entirely, posting the 45th-fastest women's split on the back half to finish 5th in 1:44:58 — a charge of 175 spots through the women's field in the final miles. Lucie Murray, who had been moving well through the middle portion, faded slightly over the closing stretch to finish 4th in 1:44:01, just 57 seconds ahead of King's late surge.