F30-34: Somers Holds On as Makeen Fades Late in a Razor-Close Battle

• Katherine Somers won the F30-34 field in 2:59:21 (6:50/mi), edging Shadeh Makeen by just 18 seconds after Makeen slipped from 5th to 10th among women in the final miles.
• Makeen ran the 5th-fastest women's split from 6.2M to 10M — one of the standout mid-race surges in the women's field — but couldn't sustain it to the finish.
• Maggie Ricciuti climbed from 30th to 18th among women across 26.2 miles, posting the 12th-fastest women's split from 13.1M to 16.2M en route to a 3:07:41 third-place finish.
• Places 5 through 10 were separated by just 55 seconds — five athletes between 3:17:55 and 3:18:50 — making for one of the tightest mid-pack battles in the field.

Katherine Somers of Carson City ran a disciplined 2:59:21 at 6:50/mi to claim the F30-34 title on the net-downhill Silverado Trail course. Her gender standing hovered between 8th and 10th all day — she never surged dramatically, but she never cracked either. The decisive moment came in the final 6.2 miles, where she posted the 8th-fastest women's closing split in the field, enough to hold off a charging pack and cross in sub-3:00.

Shadeh Makeen had looked like the one to beat. The Redondo Beach runner sat 5th among women through nearly every checkpoint and turned in the 5th-fastest women's split between miles 6.2 and 10 — a genuine mid-race statement. But the final miles told a different story: she slipped to 10th among women by the finish, crossing in 2:59:39. The gap to Somers was a mere 18 seconds, but the direction of travel was clear — this was a catch-up race that Somers won by staying steady while Makeen faded.

Third place went to Maggie Ricciuti (3:07:41, 7:10/mi), who ran one of the most progressive races in the F30-34 field, moving from 30th among women at the start to 18th by the finish. Her 12th-fastest women's split from 13.1M to 16.2M was the engine of that climb. Isabel Reback rounded out the top four in 3:14:07, herself posting the 17th-fastest women's split over that same middle stretch.

Behind the top four, Allison Maker (3:17:55), Barbara Pelham-Webb (3:18:01), Lessley Dennington (3:18:11), Ella Genasci Smith (3:18:38), Cindy Zhao (3:18:48), and Alexandra Gold (3:18:50) formed a remarkable cluster — six runners separated by under a minute, all racing hard through the vineyards of Napa Valley to the very end.