Barks & Brews 5K: Dawnelle Sauve Leads the F75-79 Pack

• Dawnelle Sauve took the F75-79 title in 31:55 (10:17/mi), finishing well ahead of the rest of the group.
• The gap from 1st to 2nd was 6:57 — and from 2nd to 5th, another 27:37 spread across three finishers.
• Sandra Jochim and Lois Ranftle both found their best relative rhythm on the final 3M→Finish stretch, posting the strongest women's splits of their race in that closing segment.
• Five women in the 75–79 age group toed the line on a clear, breezy Sacramento morning — all five crossed it.

Dawnelle Sauve, 75, was in a race of her own. Running 10:17/mi, she finished in 31:55 and was never seriously challenged within the F75-79 group. Her pace through the middle mile (1M→2M) was enough to rank 187th among all women on that segment — a solid showing in what was clearly a large women's field — and she held her position in the women's standings through the final stretch, crossing 180th among women overall.

Ursula Uhlir, 77, of Fair Oaks, was the clear runner-up, finishing in 38:52 at 12:31/mi. What made her race notable was a genuine closing move: she was 326th among women after the first mile, but steadily climbed to 295th by the finish. Her Second Half split ranked 281st among women — a meaningful uptick that showed she was reeling people in as others faded in the warm morning air.

Nancy Tellefson, 76, rounded out the top three in 43:29 (13:60/mi), holding a consistent position in the women's field from start to finish. Behind her, Sandra Jochim, 75, finished 4th in 57:51 (18:37/mi), and Lois Ranftle, 76, closed out the group in 1:06:29 (21:24/mi). Both Jochim and Ranftle actually produced their strongest relative splits of the day on the final 3M→Finish segment — a testament to pacing patience, or perhaps the encouragement of knowing the finish line was near.