F1-19: Tzewa Dingpontsawa Wins a Remarkable Youth Marathon

• Tzewa Dingpontsawa, age 13, takes the F1-19 title in 3:50:37 — an 8:48/mi pace across all 26.2 miles.
• Jin Huang claimed 2nd in 4:40:39, finishing with the strongest closing kick in the group — her 40K-to-finish split ranked 2018th among all women in the field.
• SHIRLEY ALBA was 3rd in 4:50:09, starting fast before a significant fade; her 5K–10K split ranked 1076th among women, but she slipped from a top-1000 women's position early to outside 2300 by mid-race.
• A gap of nearly 1:40:00 separated 1st from 6th — Piper Carda rounded out the six-finisher F1-19 field in 6:30:04 at 14:53/mi.

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Six young women lined up at California International Marathon on a wet, cool December morning — 56°F, light rain, and 9 mph wind — and every one of them finished. That alone is a story. But the headline belongs to 13-year-old Tzewa Dingpontsawa of Palo Alto, who won the F1-19 age group in 3:50:37, averaging 8:48 per mile for the full 26.2. She moved through the women's field with remarkable consistency, sitting around 1,150th among women for much of the race and never straying far from that position.

The race for 2nd played out differently. Jin Huang of Davis entered the final stretch with momentum, her 40K-to-finish split ranking 2018th among women — a strong close that secured her 2nd-place finish in 4:40:39. SHIRLEY ALBA of Sacramento, just 12 years old, crossed 3rd in 4:50:09 but told a very different story in the data: she opened with one of the group's sharper early splits (1076th among women on the 5K–10K segment) while sitting inside the top 1,100 women's positions, then gradually faded across the second half, finishing around 2,300th among women. A bold early effort from the youngest finisher in the field.

Indigo Mudbhary (15, San Francisco) and Naomi Alba (16, Sacramento) came home 4th and 5th in 5:07:42 and 5:11:24 respectively — separated by just under four minutes after 26.2 miles. Piper Carda of Roseville, also 15, completed the field in 6th at 6:30:04. On a raw, rainy Sacramento morning, all six F1-19 runners made it to the finish line — and the youngest of them led the way.