F40-44 at CIM 2024: Lawrence edges Gustafson by two seconds in a three-way thriller

• Margin at the top: Kathleen Lawrence won the F40-44 group in 2:47:43 — just two seconds ahead of Kate Gustafson (2:47:45) and 16 seconds clear of Anne-Marie Madden (2:47:59). All three averaged 6:24/mi.
• Podium depth: The top three finished within 16 seconds across 26.2 miles — a combined gap of roughly one stride per mile.
• Gustafson's strong close: Gustafson posted the 54th-fastest second-half split among women, suggesting she was building momentum late — but Lawrence had just enough cushion to hold on.
• Gap to fourth: Julia Ordzowialy ran 2:53:54 (6:38/mi) for fourth — more than six minutes behind Lawrence, making the podium a race entirely unto itself.

The F40-44 race at CIM 2024 was decided by a whisker. Kathleen Lawrence of Toronto came in 1st, crossing in 2:47:43 at a steady 6:24/mi pace. She was moving through the women's field the entire day — tracking from 76th among women at the first checkpoint all the way to 54th by the finish — and her 53rd-fastest women's split on the 30K–35K stretch showed she was still pressing hard in the back half of the race.

Kate Gustafson of Milwaukee ran almost the identical race. She sat at 68th among women through the early checkpoints, then reeled off the 54th-fastest second-half women's split to close in 2:47:45 — two seconds behind Lawrence. Two seconds over 26.2 miles. The places are different, so Lawrence finished ahead, but it was as close as it gets without being a tie.

Anne-Marie Madden of Vancouver made it a genuine three-way contest for the podium. The 43-year-old posted the 47th-fastest women's split on the 25K–30K segment — the strongest single-segment showing of the top three — and finished in 2:47:59. She had been tracking ahead of Gustafson through several checkpoints (53rd among women at 35K vs. Gustafson's 56th) before fading slightly to finish 3rd in F40-44.

Behind the podium, Julia Ordzowialy (4th, 2:53:54) and Danielle Obrien (5th, 2:56:53) rounded out the top five, with Obrien — the lone Sacramento local in the top ten — gradually working her way back after a faster early pace. With 418 finishers in the F40-44 group, the depth of the field was real, but the story of the day was three athletes who ran nearly identical marathons and finished within 16 seconds of each other.