Chicago Marathon F70-74: Jeannie Rice Dominates from the Front

• Jeannie Rice won the F70-74 age group, posting the fastest time among the 32 women in this field.
• Rice's mid-race surge was her sharpest weapon: she recorded the 588th-fastest women's split in the field on the 25K–30K segment — a remarkable show of strength late in a marathon.
• Diane Leonard (2nd) and Lynne Faught (3rd) completed the podium, with Linda Scorof (4th) and Darby Lewes (5th) rounding out the top five.
• All 32 women in the F70-74 age group crossed the finish line in cool, damp conditions — 58°F, light rain, and a 12 mph wind.

Jeannie Rice of Mentor controlled this race from the opening miles. Her gender place among all women tracked at 830th through the first checkpoint, then she cut through the field to 664th by 10K, held steady at 685th through 15K, and continued pressing forward to 646th at 20K. The back half of the race is where Rice truly separated herself in the F70-74 age group: that 588th-fastest split among all women on the 25K–30K stretch was a decisive mid-race push, and she crossed the line as the clear winner of her age group.

Diane Leonard of Kelowna ran a very different kind of race — patient and progressive. She was sitting 7,609th among all women at 5K, a deep starting position, and steadily worked her way forward with every checkpoint: 6,369th, 6,310th, 5,749th, 5,402nd, and ultimately 4,755th at the finish. That's a gain of nearly 2,900 places among women over 42.2 kilometers, a disciplined negative-split approach that earned her 2nd in the age group.

Lynne Faught (3rd) and Linda Scorof (4th) ran parallel races through much of the course, both in the 13,000s among all women at the midpoint. Scorof actually sat ahead of Faught at several checkpoints but faded slightly late, while Faught held firmer. Darby Lewes of Muncy closed strongly in 5th — she was 17,710th among all women at 5K and finished 10,813th, a charge of nearly 7,000 places across the full race, with her best segment coming on the 35K–40K stretch. Wet roads and a stiff wind made every mile earned on this October morning in Chicago.