NYC Half W45-49: Wickstrom Runs Away With It

• Kelly Wickstrom, 1:25:09 (6:30/mi) — wins the W45-49 group by 1:55 over Alison Steele, the largest gap on the podium.
• Tightest battle of the day: Sarah Wells (6th, 1:29:22), Taeya Konishi Schogel (7th, 1:29:25), and Aya Leitz (8th, 1:29:37) were separated by just 15 seconds across three spots.
• Leah Mark's closing kick: her 141st-fastest women's split on the 20K→Finish segment was the sharpest finish-leg among the top five, yet she still couldn't reel in Minji Wong — finishing 4th in 1:28:30 to Wong's 1:28:11.
• 1,207 women finished in the W45-49 group, making it one of the deeper age-group fields on the course.

On a crisp 40°F morning from Prospect Park to Central Park, Kelly Wickstrom of New York put together the most commanding performance in the W45-49 group. Running at a 6:30/mi average, she tracked through the women's field with purpose — her gender place climbing from 190th at the first checkpoint all the way to 122nd by the finish, a sustained surge that never let up. Her 64th-fastest women's split on the final 20K-to-finish stretch confirmed she was accelerating when others were managing the closing miles.

Alison Steele (Niwot, CO) earned a clear second in 1:27:04, moving steadily through the women's field from 253rd to 199th — a composed, progressive race at 6:39/mi. Minji Wong held third in 1:28:11, though her trajectory told a different story: she slipped from 234th to 244th among women across the race, holding on rather than pushing. Leah Mark, just 19 seconds back in fourth at 1:28:30, actually ran the stronger final segment — her 141st-fastest women's closing split edged Wong's 218th — but the time deficit built earlier proved too large to overcome.

The race for fifth through eighth was a genuine scrap. Alysia Steinmann (5th, 1:29:11) led that cluster at the finish, but Wells, Konishi Schogel, and Leitz compressed into a 15-second window behind her, with Konishi Schogel (7th, 1:29:25) and Leitz (8th, 1:29:37) separated by just 12 seconds. Further back, the pace held remarkably steady — Robin Gialanella crossed 14th in exactly 7:00/mi, and the top 20 all finished under 7:08/mi, a testament to the quality spread across a 1,207-strong field.