Masters Women at CIM 2024: Stephanie Bruce Delivers a Masters Statement

• Stephanie Bruce wins in 2:28:41 (5:40/mi), posting the 2nd-fastest women's split on the 30K–35K segment — the decisive stretch of her race.
• 8:12 separates 1st from 2nd, with Kristin Dailey (2:36:53) steadily climbing from 26th among women at the opening checkpoint to 19th by the finish.
• 4th through 6th decided in 16 seconds: Kathleen Lawrence (2:47:43), Kate Gustafson (2:47:45), and Anne-Marie Madden (2:47:59) ran themselves into a tight cluster at the line.
• A deep field of 1,188 masters women, with 10 finishers breaking 3:00 and the top 20 all running sub-3:00.

Stephanie Bruce owned this race from the front. Running 5:40 per mile across 26.2 miles, the 40-year-old from Flagstaff sat 3rd among all women through most of the race before surging to 2nd between the 10K and 30K marks, then settling back to 3rd in the women's field overall — but never relinquishing her grip on the masters lead. Her 30K–35K split was the 2nd-fastest among all women on that segment, which is where she put the race to bed.

Kristin Dailey, 43, from Elmhurst, Illinois, was a picture of controlled aggression. She entered the data at 26th among women and methodically worked her way forward, logging the 19th-fastest women's split on the 25K–30K stretch on her way to a 2:36:53 finish at 5:59/mi — good for 2nd in the masters field by a comfortable margin. Ailsa Macdonald, 44, from Cochrane, Alberta, rounded out the podium in 2:43:14, making quiet but real moves in the final 10 kilometers — her 35K–40K split ranked 35th among all women — to hold off the chase pack behind her.

That chase pack made for one of the afternoon's best sub-plots. Lawrence (2:47:43, 6:24/mi) and Gustafson (2:47:45, 6:24/mi) were separated by just two seconds at the line — Lawrence holding 4th by the slimmest of margins — with Madden (2:47:59) just 14 seconds further back in 6th. Three athletes, 16 seconds, three different cities. Behind them, the field ran deep and fast: nine more women broke 3:00, including Anne Cushman, 47, from Rancho Cordova in 10th (2:57:00) and Andrea Wilson, 49, from Comox in 14th (2:58:18), reminding everyone that "masters" at CIM is anything but a consolation bracket.