F0-19 Half Marathon: Katelyn Pegg Edges Izzy Bienaime in a Razor-Thin Finish

• Pegg and Bienaime both clocked 1:41:27 — Pegg took 1st, Bienaime 2nd, separated by less than a second at the line.
• Saskia Lee rounded out the podium in 1:47:14 (8:11/mi), finishing 5:47 behind the leaders.
• A 12-finisher F0-19 field spanned nearly 1 hour and 38 minutes from first to last, with 12th-place Connor Holeman (3:19:25) closing out the race.
• Bienaime ran the 67th-fastest women's split on the 7M→Finish stretch — one spot behind Pegg's 66th — confirming the two were locked in step all the way to the tape.

Under clear 52°F skies in Santa Rosa, the F0-19 race belonged to two teammates from Palo Alto. Katelyn Pegg, 17, and Izzy Bienaime, 16, ran the first half of the race in lockstep — both held the same gender standing through the opening miles — and they came through the finish in 1:41:27 apiece, averaging 7:44/mi. The places say it all: Pegg crossed first, Bienaime a heartbeat behind. Both moved up three spots in the women's field over the final stretch, running the 66th and 67th-fastest women's splits on the 7M→Finish segment respectively. That's not coincidence — that's a race within a race, two teenagers pushing each other to the very end.

Saskia Lee, 17, from Oakland, was the clear third force in the field, finishing in 1:47:14 at 8:11/mi — a noticeably stronger pace than the rest of the field behind her. She held her own through the first seven miles, sitting 90th among women, but faded slightly on the back half, dropping to 101st in the women's standings by the finish. Still, her 5:47 gap to the leaders and her margin over 4th place made the podium hers comfortably.

Behind the top three, Kate Samuelson (4th, 2:23:09) and Vanessa Gonzalez (5th, 2:29:59) led a second cluster, with Ana Huesa (6th, 2:36:56) and Monce Torres (7th, 2:38:32) close behind. Maritza Partida Cisneros and Marianna Brady both finished in 2:59-range — 8th and 9th — before Jennifer Gonzalez (10th, 3:10:24), Alexa Garcia (11th, 3:18:50), and Connor Holeman (12th, 3:19:25) brought the F0-19 field home.