Women's Ultramarathon: Tobits Rules the Double

• Jennifer Tobits won the women's race in 9:29:42 (10:52/mi), posting the fastest women's split on the second half of the course to seal the victory.
• Cheryl-Lynn Rodgers finished 2nd in 9:41:27 — 11 minutes, 45 seconds back — with the 2nd-fastest second-half split among the women.
• Justine Okeefe climbed from 5th to 3rd over the final marathon, crossing in 10:07:56 and edging Claudia Guerrero (4th, 10:10:12) by just over two minutes.
• The top five were separated by fewer than 44 minutes across 52.4 miles — a remarkably tight pack for a double marathon through San Francisco.

Jennifer Tobits, running in her home city at age 49, led wire-to-wire and never relinquished the top spot. Her 10:52/mi average over 52.4 miles — a course that crosses the Golden Gate Bridge and loops through Golden Gate Park twice — was the fastest pace in the women's field, and her second-half split was the best of any woman on the day. Cheryl-Lynn Rodgers from Long Beach matched that second-half energy with the 2nd-fastest closing split, but the gap Tobits had already built proved insurmountable.

The most compelling move in the women's race belonged to Justine Okeefe. The 53-year-old from Walnut Creek was sitting 5th at the halfway point, but she ran the back half with the 3rd-fastest women's split to climb onto the podium at 10:07:56. Behind her, Claudia Guerrero and Lynn Beltran — who had held 3rd and 4th respectively through the first marathon — swapped positions as the miles accumulated. Guerrero finished 4th in 10:10:12 and Beltran 5th in 10:13:11, separated by less than three minutes after more than ten hours of racing.

The rest of the field spread out across the back half of the afternoon, with Edith Chiu (6th, 11:07:39), Tandy Wilson (7th, 11:18:37), Jennifer Cogan (8th, 11:31:51), Maria Barba (9th, 11:37:42), and Alice Loughran (10th, 11:54:04) all completing the full 52.4 miles. Jairan Duke finished 11th in 12:47:10, and Ann Pham closed out the 12-woman field in 14:26:37 — every one of them having run one of the few urban ultras in the country, twice over.