Napa Valley Half Marathon F25-29: Rountree Surges to the Win

• Lizzy Rountree took the F25-29 title in 1:15:56 (5:48/mi), posting the fastest women's split on the second half to overturn the race and claim the win.
• Jen Vucinich finished just 18 seconds back in 1:16:14 (5:49/mi), running the 2nd-fastest women's closing split — a hard-charging pair who separated themselves from a 164-woman field.
• Mariel Mendoza locked up 3rd in 1:21:10 (6:11/mi), nearly five minutes clear of 4th — the podium was settled well before the finish line.
• Places 4 and 5 finished 23 seconds apart: Courtney Hollingsworth in 1:29:04 and Caroline Chou Chou in 1:29:27, two of the tightest-finishing battles of the day.

In cold, damp Napa Valley conditions — 37°F with heavy humidity and barely a breath of wind — Lizzy Rountree ran a calculated race and then turned it on when it mattered. She entered the final stretch at 6.9 miles sitting second among the women, but her closing split was the fastest of any woman on the course, and she crossed in 1:15:56 to take the F25-29 title at 5:48/mi.

Right on her heels was Jen Vucinich, who ran the 2nd-fastest women's closing split and finished in 1:16:14. That 18-second gap tells the story of a genuine battle: two athletes who were running at different paces through the finish stretch, with Rountree making the decisive move and Vucinich responding — just not quite enough. Mariel Mendoza rounded out the podium in 1:21:10, a comfortable 4:56 ahead of 4th place, making the top three a distinct tier of their own.

Further back, the race delivered its own drama. Courtney Hollingsworth climbed from 27th to 22nd among the women over the second half with the 17th-fastest women's closing split, finishing 4th in the F25-29 field in 1:29:04. Caroline Chou Chou, meanwhile, slipped from 23rd to 24th among the women in that same stretch, finishing 5th in 1:29:27 — a 23-second gap that reflects two very different second halves despite the near-identical finish times. Shannon Petersen (1:33:49), Marissa Ruiz (1:33:52), and Katy Krauel (1:34:45) filled out places 6 through 8, with Ruiz just three seconds behind Petersen in one of the closest battles of the mid-field.