F70-74: Janet Price Runs Down the Field in the Final Miles

• Janet Price, 74, wins the F70-74 group in 2:18:54 (10:36/mi), finishing more than 10 minutes clear of runner-up Bella Almaraz (2:28:57).
• Price's late surge was real: her gender place climbed from 926th at the first checkpoint all the way to 791st by the finish — a net gain of 135 spots among the women over the course of the race.
• Ginny Saiz-Burg held 3rd at 2:38:42, but her gender ranking slipped from 1,022nd to 1,283rd across the race, signaling a gradual fade through the back half.
• A wide spread at the finish: the 10 finishers ranged from Price's 2:18:54 to Susan Levine's 3:34:06 — a gap of 1 hour, 15 minutes across the group.

The F70-74 race belonged to Janet Price from the moment the final miles arrived. The 74-year-old from Elk Grove was not at the front of the women's field early — she was sitting around 910th among women at the opening checkpoint — but she never stopped moving forward. By Mile 11 she was already climbing, and she closed with the 663rd-fastest women's split on that final stretch to the finish line. In a field of more than a thousand women, that's a meaningful kick, and it sealed a commanding win.

Bella Almaraz of Sacramento was steady throughout, hovering in the 1,100–1,176 range among the women for most of the race before closing at 1,077th. Her 11:22/mi pace was consistent enough to hold off the field and claim 2nd in 2:28:57. Ginny Saiz-Burg of Reno took 3rd in 2:38:42, though her trajectory told a different story — she was 1,022nd among women at the gun and 1,283rd by the end, giving back ground steadily after a decent early segment.

The back half of the F70-74 group — Annette Elder through Susan Levine — covered a wide range of paces from 13:52/mi to 16:20/mi, with Patty Vander Dussen (3:09:49) and Carol Copping (3:14:32) separated by under five minutes in 5th and 6th. All ten finishers completed a half marathon on a clear March morning in West Sacramento, with 55°F temperatures that offered no excuses and no complaints.