Long Beach Marathon F60-64: Deioma Leads Wire to Wire

• Annie Deioma, 3:58:20 (9:05/mi) — the only F60-64 finisher to break four hours, winning by nearly seven minutes over Xiangchun Gao.
• Gao's mid-race surge — she climbed from 192nd to 179th among women on the 5.5M→13.1M segment (the 179th-fastest women's split there) before fading back to 223rd by the finish.
• Terry Felicitas and Barbara Mezaki, 4th and 5th, were the field's strongest closers in the final stretch — Felicitas (4:30:48) posted the 310th-fastest women's 20M→finish split, Mezaki (4:32:43) the 335th-fastest, each gaining dozens of places on that final push.
• 19 finishers spread across a 2:53:31 window, from Deioma's 3:58:20 down to Amie Jacoby's 6:51:51.

Annie Deioma, 63, from San Diego, owned this race from the start. Running a steady 9:05/mi, she was the only competitor in the F60-64 field to crack four hours — and she did it on a warm October morning in Long Beach, 72°F with humidity sitting at 73%. Her gender place actually dipped slightly through the middle miles (198th to 210th at one checkpoint) before she reeled it back in, finishing with the 151st-fastest women's split on the 20M-to-finish segment. That closing kick sealed a convincing 6:58 margin over second place.

Xiangchun Gao, 62, of Glendale, made the race's most dramatic mid-race move, surging from 192nd to 179th among women between miles 5.5 and 13.1 — the 179th-fastest women's split on that segment. But the pace caught up with her: she slid to 215th and then 223rd in the women's field by the finish, crossing in 4:05:18 (9:21/mi). Susan Pantely, 62, of Pittsburgh, ran the steadiest race of the three podium finishers, holding a consistent position in the 250s among women throughout and finishing 3rd in 4:11:24 (9:35/mi).

The back half of the field told its own story. Felicitas (4:30:48) and Mezaki (4:32:43) were separated by less than two minutes at the finish but both gained significant ground in the final 6.2 miles, climbing through the women's standings on that closing segment. Further back, Pam Cohen (4:50:58), Lucia Pardo (4:52:58), and Linda Drosky (4:58:23) rounded out the top eight within a tight nine-minute window. Amie Jacoby, 60, of Redondo Beach, crossed 19th and last in 6:51:51 — nearly three hours after Deioma, but 26.2 miles is 26.2 miles.