Women's Half Marathon: Dominy Dominates in Memphis Cold

• Madisyn Dominy wins in 1:21:43 (6:14/mi), leading the women's race wire-to-wire across all four checkpoints.
• Marah Morse's surge is the move of the race: starting 9th among women, she posted the 3rd-fastest women's split from 10K to the 11-mile mark and climbed to 3rd by the finish in 1:27:22.
• Podium gap: Sara Pacer held 2nd in 1:25:19 — 3:36 back of Dominy — while 3rd through 5th were separated by just 17 seconds (1:27:22 to 1:27:39).
• 3,840 women crossed the finish line at AutoZone Park on a sharp 33°F morning off Beale Street.

Madisyn Dominy, running out of Bowling Green, KY, made this race look straightforward — and that's the most impressive part. She held the women's lead from the opening gun through every checkpoint, never ceding ground, and posted the fastest women's split from 5K to 10K at a 6:14/mi clip that no one in the field could match. Her 1:21:43 betters the 2023 women's winning time of 1:24:31 and comes within striking distance of the 2022 mark of 1:21:24 — a fast field on a cold day.

Sara Pacer (Birmingham, AL) was just as locked in, running 2nd at every checkpoint on her way to a 1:25:19 finish and posting the 2nd-fastest women's split from 5K to 10K. The real drama, though, played out just behind her. Marah Morse of Memphis entered the 10K mark in 8th place and then turned on the jets: her 3rd-fastest women's split from 10K to the 11-mile mark carried her past Laura Tarantino (1:27:34, 4th) and Madison Smith (1:27:39, 5th) to claim the final podium spot in 1:27:22. Tarantino and Smith had both been in the top five since the early miles — Tarantino as high as 3rd — but Morse's late charge was decisive.

Melanie Fineman (Memphis, TN, 6th, 1:28:06), Emily Ritter (West Plains, MO, 7th, 1:28:28), and Kristin LaFontaine (Golden, CO, 8th, 1:29:32) rounded out a competitive top ten, with Melissa Hambuchen (9th, 1:29:48) and Laura Mobley (10th, 1:30:12) completing a women's field that ran hard from the first step on B.B. King Blvd. into a Memphis winter morning.