F30-34: Nell Rojas Runs Away from a Deep Field at CIM

• Nell Rojas wins in 2:31:22 (5:46/mi), the fastest woman in the F30-34 age group and the standout performance of a 585-runner field.
• YiOu Wang claimed 2nd in 2:39:37 — more than eight minutes back — while Laura Cummings (2:41:23) and Veronica Jackson (2:41:47) waged a tight battle for the final podium spots, separated by just 24 seconds.
• Jackson's late charge was the race's most dramatic move: she entered the 40K checkpoint 44th among women before posting the 13th-fastest women's split from 40K to the finish to lock up 4th.
• Cummings, by contrast, flew early — logging the 20th-fastest women's split from 5K to 10K — but faded from 14th among women at that point all the way to 40th by 40K, just holding on for 3rd.

On a crisp Sacramento morning — 53°F, barely a breath of wind — conditions were about as close to perfect as a December marathon gets, and Rojas made the most of them. She started conservatively, sitting 20th among women at the 5K mark, then reeled off one of the race's great sustained builds. By 35K she was 11th among women; then came the decisive blow — the 2nd-fastest women's split from 35K to 40K launched her to 7th among women and ultimately to a 2:31:22 finish that left the rest of the F30-34 field well behind.

Wang ran a measured, progressive race of her own, logging the 24th-fastest women's split from 25K to 30K and steadily climbing from 49th among women at the opening checkpoint to 32nd by the finish. Her 2:39:37 was a comfortable 2nd in the age group. Behind her, the podium picture only resolved in the final miles: Cummings crossed in 2:41:23 to take 3rd, but Jackson's closing surge — from 51st among women at 40K to 44th at the line — wasn't quite enough to catch her, leaving Jackson 4th in 2:41:47.

Kathleen O'Neil (5th, 2:43:02), Michelle Parks (6th, 2:43:37), and Randi Burnett (7th, 2:43:39) formed a tight cluster just over the 2:43 mark, with Burnett finishing just two seconds behind Parks. Samantha Snukis (8th, 2:44:04) and the pair of Sarah Mulcahy and Tiffany McBroom — both clocking 2:44:28 to finish 9th and 10th respectively — rounded out a top ten that spanned just over 13 minutes from first to last. With 585 finishers, the F30-34 age group was one of CIM's deepest, and the quality at the front showed it.