Shamrock Half Marathon F25-29: Benedettini Dominates from Wire to Wire

• Anna Benedettini won the F25-29 race in 1:14:11 (5:40/mi), holding 1st among women from the opening kilometer to the finish and posting the fastest women's split on the 5K→10K leg.
• Ave Grosenheider ran 1:20:22 (6:08/mi) to claim 2nd, moving up from 3rd among women at the midpoint with the 3rd-fastest women's split on the 10K→15K segment.
• Kayla Fisher charged through the back half to finish 3rd in 1:27:27 (6:40/mi), climbing from 13th among women at the first checkpoint to 7th by the finish on the strength of the 7th-fastest women's split on the second half.
• Places 5 through 10 were separated by just 1:23 — from Samantha Harrigal's 1:31:49 to Kelly Rohrer's 1:33:11 — making for a fiercely compressed mid-pack battle.

Anna Benedettini made this look controlled from the first step. The Virginia Beach local never relinquished her lead among women at any checkpoint, clicking off 5:40-per-mile through 55°F humidity and an 11 mph coastal wind that made every honest effort feel harder than the clock suggests. Her fastest women's split on the 5K→10K leg signaled that she wasn't just running her own race — she was actively pressing the pace when others were still finding their legs.

Behind her, Ave Grosenheider ran a tactically smart race. She sat 3rd among women through the early miles, then moved to 2nd on the strength of the 3rd-fastest women's split on the 10K→15K stretch and never looked back, finishing in 1:20:22 — a full six minutes behind Benedettini, but comfortably clear of the chasing pack. Kayla Fisher's story was the most dramatic climb of the day: 13th among women at 5K, methodically working her way up to 7th in the women's field by the finish to claim 3rd in F25-29 at 1:27:27.

The real drama in this 658-runner field played out between places 4 and 10. Misha Suresh (4th, 1:30:29) and Samantha Harrigal (5th, 1:31:49) both ran sub-7:00 pace, while Kayla Geer (6th, 1:32:14), Ava Ostrander (7th, 1:32:25), Holly Passetti (8th, 1:32:59), Kelly Rohrer (9th, 1:33:11), and Brady Bartee (10th, 1:33:12) were locked in a genuine race-within-a-race — Bartee edging Rohrer by a single second for 10th place, with just 18 seconds separating 6th through 10th.