F25-29 at CIM 2023: Thomas edges Estes in a sub-2:36 showdown

• Peyton Thomas wins in 2:35:45 (5:56/mi), posting the 4th-fastest women's split on the 30K–35K segment — the stretch where she made her decisive move.
• Elaine Estes finishes just 13 seconds back in 2:35:58, having run the 6th-fastest women's split from 25K–30K on her way to 2nd.
• Abigail Corrigan storms through the back half to claim 3rd in 2:37:45, climbing from 88th among women at the start to 18th by the finish — the biggest mover on the podium.
• Six seconds covered 6th through 7th place (2:41:44 and 2:41:49), and all top-20 finishers broke 2:46:07 across a field of 591.

Peyton Thomas of Boulder came in quietly — she sat 28th among women through the halfway point — before unleashing one of the sharpest second-half surges in the field. Her 30K–35K split was the 4th-fastest among all women, and by 35K she had climbed to 6th in the women's race. She held that position through the tape, finishing in 2:35:45 at 5:56 per mile to take the F25-29 title.

Thirteen seconds. That's all that separated Thomas from Elaine Estes, who ran her own aggressive second half out of Philadelphia. Estes was already making noise between 25K and 30K — her split there ranked 6th among all women — and she moved from 31st among women at halfway all the way to 10th by the finish. A 2:35:58 is a performance that wins most age groups on any given day; here it earned a hard-fought silver.

Abigail Corrigan, Estes's fellow Philadelphian, was the race's great momentum story. She was buried in 88th among women at the gun and still 88th at halfway, but her 30K–35K split ranked 10th among all women and she closed the final stretch relentlessly, landing in 18th among women and 3rd in the F25-29 group in 2:37:45. Courtney Alama (4th, 2:39:45) ran the 10th-fastest women's split from the half to 25K and held the top 10 among women as late as 30K before fading slightly in the closing miles, while Carolina Garcia (5th, 2:40:15) was still passing runners all the way to 40K, posting the 23rd-fastest women's split on that penultimate segment.