Women's Race: Rodriguez Commands Wire-to-Wire in Cool

• Perla Rodriguez, 46, wins in 1:37:07 (9:43/mi) — leading the women's race from the first checkpoint to the last, never relinquishing the top spot.
• Stephanie Ellis closes fastest, posting the fastest women's split on the Fire Station→HWY 49 segment to climb from 3rd to 2nd, finishing in 1:42:25.
• Karen Horvath held 2nd through HWY 49 before Ellis overtook her; Horvath's 3rd-fastest women's split on the HWY 49→Finish segment secured her 3rd place in 1:43:50.
• Maureen Bartley, 69, finished 14th among the women in 1:58:57 — one of the most remarkable results in a 79-woman field.

Perla Rodriguez made the women's race look simple, even if it wasn't. The 46-year-old from Mercer Island held first place at every single checkpoint, and she backed that consistency with the 2nd-fastest women's split on the Fire Station→HWY 49 stretch — meaning she wasn't just leading, she was still pressing hard through the middle of the race. Her winning time of 1:37:07 at a 9:43/mi pace left a 5:18 gap to second place, a margin that tells its own story.

Behind Rodriguez, the real drama played out in the chase pack. Karen Horvath ran in 2nd through the HWY 49 checkpoint, but Stephanie Ellis had other ideas. Ellis ran the fastest women's split on the Fire Station→HWY 49 segment — faster than even the race winner on that stretch — and that burst was enough to flip the positions. Ellis crossed in 1:42:25 for 2nd, with Horvath holding on for 3rd in 1:43:50, salvaging the podium with the 3rd-fastest women's split on the final HWY 49→Finish leg.

The battle for 4th and 5th was equally compelling. Miakota Toy, just 17 years old from Auburn, held 4th through HWY 49, but Alyson Cheney — who had been sitting in 5th — ran the 7th-fastest women's split on that closing segment to edge past her. Cheney finished 4th in 1:50:37 to Toy's 5th in 1:51:12, a gap of just 35 seconds after ten miles of racing. Toy's performance at 17, finishing 5th among 79 women at 11:07/mi, is a name to watch in this region.

And then there's Maureen Bartley. The 69-year-old from Auburn finished 14th in the women's field with a 1:58:57 — running 11:54/mi across a challenging 10-mile course in Cool, CA on a warm March morning. No caveats needed.