Female Masters Marathon: Earle Dominates, a Field of 1,542 Delivers Drama Behind Her

• Meriah Earle wins in 2:34:34 (5:54/mi), climbing from 8th among women at the opening checkpoint to 3rd by the finish — the class of the Female Masters field by nearly nine minutes.
• Angela Moll and Ruth Brennan Morrey separated by just 24 seconds (2:43:17 vs. 2:43:41) for 2nd and 3rd — Morrey making up serious ground with the 13th-fastest women's split on the 35K–40K segment.
• Jenny Hitchings, 56, finished 11th in 2:50:35 (6:30/mi) — one of the oldest athletes in the top 20 and one of the most impressive age-relative performances in a top-20 group that also included Peggy Yetman, 51, one second ahead of her in 10th at 2:50:18.
• Bean Wrenn faded from 40th among women at 15K to 96th by the finish, her 2:47:43 still good for 5th in the Female Masters — a reminder of how brutal the back half of CIM can be.

Meriah Earle ran a controlled, ascending race. She was 8th among the women through the first checkpoint, moved steadily to 4th, and then — on the 30K–35K segment — posted the 2nd-fastest women's split in the entire field to lock up the Female Masters title. By the finish she was 3rd among all women, crossing in 2:34:34 at a 5:54-per-mile clip. In a field of 1,542 Female Masters finishers, no one came within eight and a half minutes of her.

The real drama for 2nd and 3rd played out between Angela Moll and Ruth Brennan Morrey. Moll, running out of San Diego, was remarkably consistent — hovering between 44th and 51st among women through the middle miles before surging to 29th by 40K. Morrey's story was different: she was 130th among women at 10K, worked methodically through the field, and then unleashed the 13th-fastest women's split on the 35K–40K segment to close to within 24 seconds of Moll at the line. That's a catch-up, not a coincidence — Morrey ran that late stretch faster and nearly reeled in 2nd place entirely.

Jennifer Hughes (4th, 2:45:28) kept climbing checkpoints all the way to the finish, while Bean Wrenn ran a notably different race — fast early with the 30th-fastest women's split on the 10K–15K segment, then gradually losing ground through the final miles to finish 5th in 2:47:43. Flora Lai (6th, 2:48:03), Maggie Shearer (7th, 2:49:04), and Kate Pfeffer (8th, 2:49:27) rounded out a tight mid-pack in which just 84 seconds separated 6th from 9th. On a cool, damp Sacramento morning — 56°F and light rain — 1,542 Female Masters athletes got after it, and the top 20 alone spanned ages 40 to 56.