California International Marathon F75-79: Radakovitz Edges Rinker in a Battle of the 75-Year-Olds

• Dilyn Radakovitz won the F75-79 age group in 5:25:38 (12:25/mi), holding off Barbara Rinker by just 1 minute 54 seconds.
• Barbara Rinker finished 2nd in 5:27:32 (12:30/mi) after running near the front of the age group through the halfway mark.
• Charlyn Frazier, 77, rounded out the three-woman F75-79 field in 6:01:53 (13:48/mi), finishing nearly 36 minutes back.

Three women in their mid-to-late 70s lined up for the California International Marathon on a mild December morning in Sacramento — 57°F, a light breeze, and broken clouds overhead — and what unfolded between the top two was a tight, grinding contest that wasn't settled until the final miles. Dilyn Radakovitz of Loomis claimed the F75-79 title in 5:25:38, averaging 12:25 per mile across all 26.2, but she had to work for every second of that margin.

Barbara Rinker actually looked like the stronger runner through the early going. Her gender place among the women's field sat at 2,251 at the 15K mark — considerably stronger positioning than Radakovitz at that stage — and she posted a solid split through 15K to the half. But the second half told a different story. Rinker faded steadily, her position among women slipping from 2,366 at 15K all the way back to 2,798 by the finish. Radakovitz, meanwhile, was moving the other direction in the final stretch, climbing from 2,839 among women at 15K to 2,766 at 40K before a slight settle to 2,778 at the line. The 1:54 gap between them is real, but it was far from inevitable.

Charlyn Frazier, the group's eldest at 77, ran her own steady race at the back of the three-woman field. Her position among the women's field barely shifted across the entire course — hovering near 3,000 from start to finish — which speaks to a remarkably consistent effort, even if the clock read 6:01:53 at the end. At 13:48 per mile for a full marathon at age 77, that finish deserves its own acknowledgment.