F15-19 at the Peachtree Road Race: Catharine Beall Leads a Deep Field on the Fourth

• Catharine Beall, age 15, won F15-19 in 36:32 (5:53/mi), posting the 23rd-fastest women's split on the 2M→3M stretch.
• Liliana Beemer held 2nd from start to finish, crossing in 37:05 — just 33 seconds back — while Paige Comstock climbed steadily through the women's field to claim 3rd in 37:57.
• Cadee Benz made the most dramatic move of the race, surging from 75th among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 49th by the finish, powered by the 29th-fastest women's split on the final 5M→Finish stretch.
• Hazel Davis and Heidi Thompson both finished in 40:33, but the timing chips separated them cleanly into 16th and 17th.

On a warm, humid Fourth of July morning in Atlanta — 75°F and 68% humidity before the sun even got serious — Catharine Beall of Cumming ran a composed, front-loaded race to take the F15-19 title. At just 15 years old, she held a position in the upper tier of the entire women's field throughout, and her 23rd-fastest women's split on the 2M→3M segment showed she was doing real work in the middle miles. Her 36:32 finish, at a 5:53/mi clip, gave her a comfortable 33-second cushion over Liliana Beemer.

Beemer, 17, from Evans, was a model of consistency — her position among the women barely budged from checkpoint to checkpoint, and she closed with the 34th-fastest women's split on the final push to the line. Paige Comstock, another 15-year-old, was the quiet mover of the podium, advancing steadily from 54th among women at the first check to 44th at the finish to earn 3rd in 37:57.

The race's best story off the podium belonged to Cadee Benz of Sugar Hill. Starting conservatively — 75th among women through the first mile — she spent the entire race reeling people in, finally delivering the 29th-fastest women's split on the 5M→Finish segment to rocket into 5th at 38:35. That kind of late-race acceleration, in that humidity, is worth noticing.

With 927 finishers in F15-19, this was one of the largest and most competitive fields of the day. The top 20 alone spanned just 4:16 from Beall's winning time to Caroline Debutts's 40:48 — a tight, talented group that made the most of a tough holiday morning in Atlanta.