Santa Rosa Half Marathon F0-19: Reese Chang Runs Away With It

• Reese Chang, 16, wins in 1:39:52 — a 7:37/mi pace that put nearly 4:15 between her and runner-up Grace Blystra (1:44:07).
• Chang finished strong, posting the 83rd-fastest women's split on the 7M→Finish stretch while climbing from 89th to 85th among all women.
• Blystra faded on the back half, slipping from 87th to 105th among women over the final stretch — while Sofia Carollo (3rd, 1:47:34) moved the other way, gaining seven spots to finish 132nd among women.
• A wide spread across 16 finishers: from Chang's 7:37/mi to Macy Lewis's 14:11/mi (3:05:52), the field covered nearly 86 minutes of racing.

Reese Chang made the F0-19 race her own from start to finish. The 16-year-old from Rohnert Park crossed in 1:39:52 at 7:37/mi — a pace none of her competitors came close to matching on a cool, misty morning in Santa Rosa. She was moving well enough on the 7M-to-Finish stretch to rank 83rd among all women on that segment, and she ticked upward through the women's field as the race wore on.

Grace Blystra, 19, of Fairfield was the closest challenger, finishing 2nd in 1:44:07 at 7:57/mi — a solid performance in isolation, but the gap to Chang was decisive. The final segment told a harder story for Blystra: her 145th-fastest women's split on 7M→Finish, paired with a slide from 87th to 105th among women, signals she gave some ground in the closing miles. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Sofia Carollo of Santa Rosa ran the opposite trajectory, picking up seven spots among women over the same stretch to claim 3rd in 1:47:34. Aliyah Guizar, also 15 and also from Rohnert Park, rounded out the top four in 1:51:59.

Behind the top four, the field spread out considerably. Luz Cañez (5th, 2:06:40) was the last finisher under the two-hour-ten mark, though her 537th-fastest women's split on the back half reflected a tough closing stretch. Shawna Goldthorpe (6th, 2:15:11) through Macy Lewis (16th, 3:05:52) spanned nearly 50 minutes of racing — a reminder that this field ranged from competitive half-marathon runners to teenagers simply gutting out 13.1 miles on a humid August morning.