Napa Valley 5K — F40-44: Eighmey Runs Away With It

• Jensen Eighmey wins in 24:21 (7:50/mi), more than a minute clear of the field in a 33-woman F40-44 race run in crisp 36°F Napa conditions.
• Jennifer Carpenter's 25:30 (8:12/mi) earns a comfortable second, with Rebecca Bullock's 27:44 (8:56/mi) rounding out the podium.
• Positions 9–11 were a dead sprint: Sabra Reyes (32:06), Tali Pashinsky (32:07), and Aylin Klein (32:09) — three women separated by just three seconds.
• The field spread wide: from Eighmey's 7:50/mi to Gia Chong's 12:31/mi (20th, 38:52), the F40-44 race told very different stories at the front and back.

Jensen Eighmey of Vallejo made this one look almost comfortable. Her 24:21 finish — a 7:50/mi clip in cold, still air — put her 1:09 ahead of second place, a margin that speaks to a wire-to-wire command performance. At 42, she was the class of a 33-woman field and left little doubt about who owned the F40-44 race.

Jennifer Carpenter, racing from Charlotte, held second with a solid 25:30 (8:12/mi) — a noticeably different pace from Eighmey's, but well clear of the rest. Rebecca Bullock of Lexington completed the podium in 27:44 (8:56/mi), followed by Siri Ziese (28:40, 9:14/mi) and Maayan Pinkovezky (28:50, 9:17/mi) in a tight 4th-5th battle separated by just ten seconds.

The most dramatic stretch of the race unfolded around places 9 through 11. Sabra Reyes of Santa Cruz crossed in 32:06, Tali Pashinsky of Mountain View just one second later at 32:07, and Aylin Klein of Seattle a further two seconds back at 32:09. Three women, three seconds — that's as close to a three-way footrace finish as you'll see. Angela Zullinger (32:56, 12th) and Xiaohui Wang, the local Napa entrant, finished 13th in 33:45, before the field stretched out through the teens and into Gia Chong's 38:52 to close out the top 20.