F60-64 at the B.A.A. 10K: Sue George Runs Down the Field

• Sue George wins in 47:44 (7:41/mi), pulling clear of a competitive F60-64 group of 111 women to take the age-group title.
• George gained 37 spots among women in the final 2K, moving from 215th to 178th in the women's field — the strongest finishing kick at the top of the age group.
• The podium spans just 73 seconds: George (47:44), Jane Polley (48:19), and Terry Buchmiller (48:57) were all within a tight 73-second window across the first three spots.
• Debra Johnson, age 64, was the eldest in the top five, finishing 5th in 53:04 — the only top-five finisher at the far end of the age band.

Running through 85°F heat and Boston's summer humidity, the F60-64 age group put together a genuinely competitive front end. Sue George of Bolton set the tone from early on, sitting 215th among women at the 5K checkpoint before steadily reeling in runners over the back half. By 8K she was up to 195th, and she closed the final stretch with the 155th-fastest women's split from 8K to the finish — a strong late surge that sealed the win in 47:44 at a 7:41/mi clip.

Jane Polley of Newton ran a well-managed race to claim second in 48:19, though her splits tell a different story than George's: she was 172nd among women at 5K, then faded to 204th by the finish — still fast enough to hold off the field and land 35 seconds behind the winner. Terry Buchmiller of Squantum took third in 48:57, also drifting back through the women's field in the second half, but her 7:53/mi average was more than enough to secure the final podium spot.

Behind the top three, Lili Zhang of Newton ran a strong middle stretch — posting the 343rd-fastest women's split on the 5K-to-8K segment and climbing from 424th to 367th among women in that window — to finish 4th in 51:38. The gap from 3rd to 4th was a substantial 2:41, making the podium positions the real story of the day. With 111 women finishing across the age group in genuine summer heat, the depth here was real — and George's ability to accelerate when others were fading made the difference at the top.