Masters Women: Vasconcellos Surges Late to Claim San Francisco

• Maria Eduarda De Arruda Falcao Vasconcellos won the Masters Women's race in 1:31:33 (6:59/mi), posting the fastest women's split from 12M to the finish to seal a dramatic come-from-behind victory.
• Kellie Nickerson closed in 1:38:49 with the 7th-fastest women's second-half split, climbing from 14th to 2nd in the final miles — the biggest surge of the day.
• Susan Empey and Franziska Fitz finished 4th and 5th in 1:41:53 and 1:41:55 respectively, separated by just two seconds after 13.1 miles — with Empey having run the 17th-fastest second-half split and Fitz the 13th-fastest to make up enormous ground from early in the race.
• A deep field of 781 Masters Women finished on a cool, breezy San Francisco morning — 59°F and 14 mph winds off the Bay.

For most of the race, Vasconcellos ran comfortably in 6th among women, patient and controlled through the city's rolling terrain. Then, from mile 12 to the finish, she unleashed the fastest women's closing split of the day — a move that swept her from 7th to 1st and delivered the win by more than seven minutes over runner-up Nickerson. At 6:59/mi across 13.1 miles, her effort was the class of the Masters Women's field.

Nickerson's story was nearly as compelling. The Albuquerque runner spent much of the middle miles bouncing between 10th and 20th among women before locking in the 7th-fastest second-half split to surge home in 1:38:49 — a textbook negative split that earned her 2nd place. Kristina Byrd of Oakland ran a steadier race to take 3rd in 1:41:02, posting the 10th-fastest closing split from mile 12 to the finish.

The battle for 4th and 5th was one of the day's great chases. Empey, 58, from Mercer Island, tracked down a field that had been well ahead of her early, riding the 17th-fastest second-half split to finish in 1:41:53. Fitz, 40, from Walnut Creek, was even further back at the halfway point — as far back as 62nd among women — before her 13th-fastest second-half split brought her home in 1:41:55, just two seconds behind Empey. Further back, Sheila Leong (1:44:07, 6th) and a tight cluster including Claudia Timney, Lucie Murray, and Jing Chen all finishing within 30 seconds of each other rounded out a fiercely competitive top ten.