Two Cities Marathon F25-29: Bastidas Defends the Top Spot

• Gracielita Bastidas won the F25-29 age group in 3:03:49 (7:01/mi), finishing 5th among all women — the only runner in the group to crack 3:10.
• Kylie Schmidt surged from 11th to 7th among women on the opening 10K stretch, eventually taking 2nd in the age group at 3:13:35 — more than 9 minutes back of Bastidas.
• Araceli Mancilla and Diana Reyes both made late charges: Mancilla posted the 3rd-fastest women's split on the 23M–25.2M stretch; Reyes answered with the 7th-fastest women's split from 25.2M to the finish.
• Stephanie and Stacy Sparkman both clocked identical displayed times of 4:48:16 (10:60/mi avg), finishing 15th and 16th respectively in the age group.

Gracielita Bastidas of Fresno came in with something to prove. She had finished 3rd among all women here at Two Cities in 2023 with a 3:01:21, and on Sunday she returned to the same flat, fast point-to-point course and claimed the F25-29 title outright at 3:03:49 — holding 5th place among women for most of the race before moving up to 4th at the halfway checkpoint, then settling back to 5th at the line. Her 4th-fastest women's split on the 10K-to-half stretch was a quiet statement of mid-race strength, and the win itself is the headline she earned.

Kylie Schmidt of Santa Monica made the early race exciting, climbing from 11th to 7th among women by the 10K mark on the strength of the 7th-fastest women's split in that opening stretch, and she held that women's position all the way to the finish. Her 3:13:35 secured a comfortable 2nd in the age group. Diana Reyes (3:18:59, 3rd) and Araceli Mancilla (3:20:37, 4th) were the late-race movers — Mancilla surging hardest between miles 23 and 25.2, Reyes responding with a strong final push to the line — but neither could close the gap on Schmidt ahead of them.

Deepa Ramakrishnan rounded out the top five at 3:23:51, holding a remarkably consistent position (12th–14th among women) from start to finish before posting the 12th-fastest women's split on the closing stretch. Behind her, a large cluster of finishers filled out the field, with Gaby Mendoza (6th, 3:48:59) and Lety Garcia (7th, 3:51:29) leading the second wave home across the Fresno/Clovis border.