N25-29: Saucedo Takes the Age Group in Virginia Beach Heat

• Marco Saucedo won the N25-29 age group in 1:45:34 (8:03/mi), finishing 2nd among the men across the half marathon.
• Chelsea Delacruz completed the course in 2:49:26 (12:55/mi), holding 8th among the women at the finish.
• Saucedo posted the fastest women's split on the 20K-to-finish stretch — the strongest closing leg in the women's field.
• Delacruz answered with the 7th-fastest women's split on that same closing segment, showing her own late-race legs.

The N25-29 age group brought two very different races to Virginia Beach on a warm, breezy Sunday — 71°F, 17 mph winds, and 73% humidity making every mile feel a little longer than the number on the marker. Marco Saucedo handled it with authority, crossing in 1:45:34 at 8:03 per mile and holding 2nd among the men from start to finish. No drama in the standings, just a steady, controlled performance from wire to wire.

Where Saucedo truly separated himself was on the back end of the race. From 20K to the finish line, he posted the fastest women's split in the entire women's field — a closing kick that underscores just how well he managed the conditions when others were fading. It's a standout number in a race where the heat and wind had plenty of runners tightening up late.

Chelsea Delacruz ran her own race on the other side of the age group. She navigated some mid-race shuffling — dropping briefly to 9th among the women before reclaiming 8th by the finish — and closed with the 7th-fastest women's split on the 20K-to-finish segment. At 12:55 per mile across 13.1 miles in those conditions, she earned every step of that finish line.

Two finishers, two solid stories. Saucedo takes the N25-29 title; Delacruz gives him a worthy age-group companion on a day Virginia Beach made everyone work for it.