Girls 14-and-Under: Mia Luna Runs Away With It

• Mia Luna, 13, wins the F0-14 age group in 2:18:35 — a 10:34/mi pace that left the field nearly 47 minutes behind.
• Judith Farfan posted the 179th-fastest women's split on the 1M→10K segment, the sharpest split performance among the three, before fading hard in the back half.
• R. Chase held the steadiest second half, recording the 618th-fastest women's split on the 10K→Finish stretch to secure 2nd in 3:05:53.
• Three finishers under age 15 completed a half marathon on a warm 74°F November morning in Fresno — no small feat.

Mia Luna, just 13 years old, turned in a commanding performance from start to finish. Running 10:34 per mile across 13.1 miles, she crossed in 2:18:35 — nearly 47 minutes clear of 2nd place. Her race had genuine texture too: she climbed from 275th among women to 203rd through the early miles before settling back to 281st at the line, suggesting a strong mid-race surge that she managed well enough to hold together.

The battle for 2nd told a more dramatic story. Judith Farfan, 14, was the one to watch through the first 10K — her 179th-fastest women's split on the 1M→10K segment was the most electric split performance in this group, and she had surged all the way to 191st among women at that checkpoint. But the back half was brutal: she dropped to 681st among women by the finish, bleeding more than 30 minutes to R. Chase over the final miles. Chase, 12, from Madera, ran a composed second half and came home in 3:05:53 to claim 2nd, with Farfan finishing 3rd in 3:22:40.

At 12, R. Chase is the youngest of the three and the only one from outside Fresno. Holding together a 14:11/mi average over 13.1 miles at that age — in the heat — is a real accomplishment. Farfan's early aggression cost her on the back end, but her opening 10K split hints at what she might do with better pacing. Luna, meanwhile, simply ran her own race from wire to wire.