F25-29: Verdon Dominates from Gun to Tape in Chicago Heat

• Carrie Verdon won the F25-29 age group in 1:11:14 (5:26/mi), holding 1st among women from the opening kilometer to the finish — and posting the fastest women's split on the 5K–8K stretch.
• Mao Ichiyama matched Verdon stride-for-stride in structure, running 2nd among women at every checkpoint on her way to 2nd in F25-29 in 1:13:44 — a gap of 2:30 back.
• Rachel Dadamio was the age group's biggest mover: 13th among women at 5K, she climbed all the way to 5th by the finish, clocking the 4th-fastest women's split from 15K to the line to land 3rd in 1:18:29.
• Fourth and fifth were separated by just 6 seconds — Tess Pinon (4th, 1:22:40) and Anna Stone (5th, 1:22:46), with Stone owning the 7th-fastest women's split from 15K to finish.

With 74°F, a 12 mph wind, and nearly half-humidity on race day, Carrie Verdon made the conditions look irrelevant. The 25-year-old from Boulder ran 5:26 per mile through Chicago's streets, led among all women from the very first checkpoint, and never once surrendered that position. Her fastest women's split on the 5K–8K segment underscores that this wasn't a conservative front-run — she pushed the pace in the middle of the race and still had enough to hold off a serious challenger.

That challenger, Mao Ichiyama, was relentless in her own right. Running in lockstep with Verdon's gender place at every single checkpoint — 2nd among women at 5K, 10K, 15K, and the finish — Ichiyama's 1:13:44 (5:37/mi) was a commanding performance in its own right. She also posted the 2nd-fastest women's split on the 5K–8K segment, confirming the two were running in a class of their own through that stretch.

Behind them, the real drama belonged to Rachel Dadamio. The Chicago local was buried 13th among women at the first checkpoint but ran a relentless second half, posting the 4th-fastest women's split from 15K to the finish and climbing all the way to 3rd in 1:18:29. Just outside the podium, Tess Pinon (4th, 1:22:40) and Anna Stone (5th, 1:22:46) were locked in a tight battle throughout — Stone's 7th-fastest women's split over the final stretch nearly closed a gap that Pinon had built up, but six seconds was just enough.