Masters Women: Dow Edges Samuelson in a 25-Second Thriller at the Top

• Rebekka Dow, 41, of Eau Claire, WI won the Masters Women race in 2:49:04 (6:27/mi), posting the 8th-fastest women's split on the 35K–40K segment — a late surge that helped seal the result.
• Kari-Anne Samuelson, 40, of Denver, CO finished 2nd in 2:49:29 (6:28/mi), separated from Dow by just 25 seconds across 26.2 miles — and she owned the 9th-fastest women's split on the 25K–30K leg, meaning she moved first, Dow answered later.
• Wanda Gau, 60, of Little Falls, MN claimed 3rd in 3:06:23 (7:07/mi), climbing from 38th among women at the opening checkpoint all the way to 26th by the finish — one of the most sustained moves in the field.
• Sara Ibbetson, 41, of Ozark, MO finished 4th in 3:06:50, just 27 seconds behind Gau, powered by the 19th-fastest women's split on the 5K–10K segment — though that early pace advantage couldn't hold off Gau's relentless second-half climb.

The story at the front of the Masters Women race was a quiet, grinding duel between two runners who barely let daylight grow between them. Dow tracked near the top ten among all women for most of the race — hovering between 9th and 13th — before making her decisive move in the final stretch from 35K to 40K, where she posted the 8th-fastest women's split of anyone on that segment. Samuelson had been the aggressor earlier, running the 9th-fastest women's split between 25K and 30K as she pushed into the top eleven among all women. But Dow's late kick was the answer that mattered, and she crossed in 2:49:04 to take the title on the point-to-point route from Minneapolis to Saint Paul.

The battle for third told a completely different story. Gau, 60, from Little Falls, MN, was a patient, methodical presence — 38th among women at 5K, still 30th at the halfway point, and then grinding all the way to 26th by the finish. Her 22nd-fastest women's split on the 25K–30K segment was the engine of that climb, and her 3:06:23 holds up as a remarkable performance. Ibbetson, meanwhile, went out hard — 19th-fastest women's split in the opening 5K–10K — but faded through the back half, finishing 4th in 3:06:50, just 27 seconds shy of the podium.

Behind the top four, the Masters Women field of 1,042 finishers spread across a wide range of efforts. Sara Johnson, 50, of Waconia, MN, was the top 50-and-over finisher outside the podium, crossing 5th in 3:10:35. Monika Kalbacher of Vienna was 6th in 3:17:05, followed by a cluster of runners from the Twin Cities area — Angela Boylan (7th, 3:19:08) and Tammi Braund (8th, 3:20:33) — rounding out a competitive top ten on a cool, humid October morning along the Mississippi.