California International Marathon F65-69: MacDonald-McGee Runs Down the Field

• Deborah MacDonald-McGee won the F65-69 age group in 4:15:38 (9:45/mi), the only finisher under 4:20 in a field of 27.
• The podium gap widened steadily: Suzanne Koonce finished 2nd in 4:23:40, Karla Kirkwood 3rd in 4:25:18 — just 1:38 separating them, but 8 minutes back of the winner.
• Kirkwood and Elizabeth Conner (4th, 4:28:22) both posted their strongest segment on the 35K–40K stretch, each logging one of the faster women's splits in the field on that late push.
• Janet Green (5th, 4:32:12) was the only top-five finisher who lost ground in the women's field from the start, suggesting a more conservative early strategy that didn't fully pay off.

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Deborah MacDonald-McGee, 66, from Ottawa, came to Sacramento and put in a controlled, relentless performance on a cool, wet December morning. She entered the women's field somewhere around 1,874th at the opening checkpoint and spent the entire race climbing — reaching as high as 1,603rd by the 25K–30K segment, where she posted one of her sharper splits of the day. By the finish she had worked her way to 1,696th among all women, crossing in 4:15:38 at a 9:45/mi clip — a margin of more than eight minutes over anyone else in the F65-69 group.

Behind her, Suzanne Koonce (68, Menlo Park) ran a disciplined race of her own, steadily advancing through the women's field from 2,073rd at the first checkpoint all the way to 1,867th at the line, finishing in 4:23:40. Karla Kirkwood (65, San Francisco) started even further back — 2,322nd among women at the opening split — but closed hard, turning in a strong 35K–40K segment and surging from 1,985th to 1,897th in the final stages to claim 3rd in 4:25:18. Elizabeth Conner (66, Golden, CO) mirrored that late-race surge on the same 35K–40K stretch and finished 4th in 4:28:22, just 1:04 behind Kirkwood.

Janet Green (66, Courtenay, BC) rounded out the top five in 4:32:12, though her trajectory told a different story — she actually slipped in the women's field from the very first checkpoint and never fully recovered her early position. From 6th onward the gaps opened up considerably: Cindy Behrens (6th, 4:43:21) and Tonya Bonifacini (7th, 4:45:19) were separated by under two minutes, while Bella Almaraz (8th, 4:48:44) and Patty Vander Dussen (9th, 4:53:37) kept the midpack competitive. Eva Busto (10th, 5:01:14) was the first of the group to break the five-hour barrier from the other side, leading a steady procession of finishers through to Georgiana Boewer (20th, 5:39:08) and seven more beyond her.