F35-39 at CIM 2024: Wiltshire Runs Away with It

• Janet Wiltshire wins in 2:43:21 (6:14/mi), finishing 21 minutes and 40 seconds clear of the podium — the dominant performance in the F35-39 field.
• Tenkate, Campeau, and Brash finish 2nd through 4th within a 10-second window — 2:49:01, 2:49:05, and 2:49:11 — three women separated by less than the blink of a clock.
• Campeau and Brash posted the 54th- and 57th-fastest women's splits on the 35K→40K segment, while Tenkate was close behind at 55th — the trio running nearly identically through that crucial stretch.
• Lauren Ferrara climbed from 111th among women at the first checkpoint to 76th at the finish, the most dramatic mover in the top 20.

Janet Wiltshire of Truckee ran a wire-to-wire masterclass. She arrived at the first checkpoint already sitting 55th among women and steadily climbed — 54th, 52nd, then a decisive surge to 45th in the women's field by 35K, where she held firm through the finish. Her 6:14/mi average was in a different register from everyone else in the F35-39 field, and she capped it with the 20th-fastest women's split on the 40K-to-finish stretch, meaning she didn't let up when others might have coasted.

Behind her, the race for 2nd through 4th was essentially a dead sprint played out over 26.2 miles. Melissa Tenkate, Kari Campeau, and Lucy Brash all crossed in 2:49-something — a 10-second spread across three athletes averaging 6:27/mi. All three ran nearly identical 35K→40K splits, ranked 55th, 54th, and 57th respectively among women on that segment. The places were decided by margins finer than the clocks show, with Tenkate edging Campeau by four seconds and Campeau holding off Brash by six.

Lauren Ferrara was the story of the second half. Starting well back — 111th among women through the early miles — she ran herself into contention with the 61st-fastest women's split on the 30K→35K segment, ultimately finishing 5th in F35-39 in 2:51:00. Christie Wetzel (2:51:09) and Alice Henley (2:51:32) rounded out the top seven, all three separated by just 32 seconds in a competitive, well-matched field of 466 finishers.