F70-74 at CIM 2024: Koonce Breaks Four Hours to Win the Age Group

• Suzanne Koonce won the F70-74 age group in 3:59:57 — a 9:09/mi average — crossing under four hours at age 73.
• Koonce steadily climbed the women's field over the final stretch, moving from 1,773rd among women at the start to 1,565th by the finish.
• A 13-minute, 42-second gap separated Koonce from runner-up Young-Sook Kwon (4:13:39), with Gail Leland and Martha Aarons separated by just 2:12 in the battle for 3rd and 4th.
• Places 5 and 6 — Marsha Deere (4:48:21) and Diane Tracy (4:48:39) — finished just 18 seconds apart.

Suzanne Koonce, 73, from Menlo Park, delivered the headline performance of the F70-74 age group: a sub-four-hour marathon at a 9:09/mi clip. She didn't just win — she ran the entire race with steady forward momentum, climbing from 1,773rd among women in the early going to 1,565th at the line. Her strongest relative move came on the final push, where she posted the 1,260th-fastest women's split on the 40K-to-finish segment, a kick that confirmed the win was never in doubt.

Young-Sook Kwon, 71, from Los Angeles, took 2nd in 4:13:39, running a composed 9:40/mi pace. Kwon's movement among the women's field tells a slightly different story — she drifted back modestly from 1,848th to 1,810th — but she held her position in the age group comfortably throughout. Behind her, Gail Leland (4:25:02) and Martha Aarons (4:27:14) ran within two minutes of each other for the better part of the race, with Leland's 30K–35K segment helping her secure 3rd by a final margin of 2:12.

The back half of the field produced its own drama. Marsha Deere and Diane Tracy ran nearly identical races — 4:48:21 and 4:48:39 — finishing just 18 seconds apart after 26.2 miles. Deere, 70, was the youngest finisher in the group and showed her best relative split on the 35K–40K segment. Aida de La Torre and Suzanne Barron rounded out the eight-finisher field at 4:51:46 and 4:54:37, completing a full F70-74 showing on a mild December morning in Sacramento.