F40-44 Half Marathon: Cathleen Willy Dominates in 1:24:09

• Willy's margin was massive: Her 1:24:09 at 6:25/mi pace beat runner-up Lili Peng by more than 10 minutes — the widest gap on the F40-44 podium.
• A rocket start: Willy entered the 1M–10K segment with the 5th-fastest women's split in that stretch, and her gender place jumped from 37th to 2nd — a surge that effectively decided the race before the halfway point.
• Strong finishers in 3rd and 4th: The anonymous 3rd-place finisher (1:37:59) and Valerie Kao in 4th (1:38:35) both posted the 15th- and 18th-fastest women's splits on the 10K-to-finish leg, respectively — each climbing from outside the top 75 among women to finish well inside the top 20.
• A deep field: 85 women completed the F40-44 half marathon, with the top 20 spanning just under 46 minutes from Willy's 1:24:09 to Lindsey Lake's 2:09:37.

Cathleen Willy of Clovis made her intentions clear almost immediately. After crossing the 1-mile mark somewhere in the middle of the women's field, she had already rocketed to 2nd among women by the 10K checkpoint — and she held that position all the way to the finish. Her 6:25/mi average on a warm November morning in Fresno (74°F, clear skies) was a performance that left the rest of the F40-44 field in a different race entirely.

Lili Peng of Dublin ran a composed 1:34:43 to claim 2nd, posting the 13th-fastest women's split in the opening 1M–10K segment and climbing steadily from 48th among women at mile one to 11th at the finish. The podium's 3rd and 4th spots went to a pair of 44-year-olds who made their moves in the back half: the anonymous 3rd-place finisher and Valerie Kao both charged through the 10K-to-finish leg with two of the sharpest women's splits in that segment, vaulting from deep in the women's field into the top 20.

Amy Haste rounded out the top five in 1:47:45, followed by Maribel Jimenez (1:49:27) and Lisa Maher (1:49:35) — just 8 seconds separating 6th from 7th. With 85 finishers spread across a 46-minute window, the F40-44 group delivered one commanding performance at the front and a genuinely competitive battle for every place behind it.