Chicago 13.1 Women's F55-59: Lozano Runs Away With It

• Heidy Lozano won the F55-59 age group in 1:35:32 (7:17/mi) — a commanding 15-minute margin over the rest of the field.
• Tracey Smith and Susan Land ran nearly identical races, finishing 2nd in 1:50:36 and 3rd in 1:50:55 — just 19 seconds apart.
• Charmaine Jamerson closed hard in the back half, posting the 165th-fastest women's split from 15K to the finish to claim 4th in 1:51:56.
• Maria Schreiber and Marlyn Maio staged a tight battle for 5th, finishing in 1:57:23 and 1:57:25 — just two seconds separating them across 13.1 miles.

Heidy Lozano, making the trip from Boulder, CO, was in a race of her own on a warm June morning in Chicago — 74°F with a 12 mph wind off the lake. She crossed in 1:35:32, averaging 7:17 per mile, and her gender place hovered consistently in the low 50s throughout, a sign of steady, controlled dominance from start to finish. The gap to second place wasn't a late fade by the field — Lozano simply ran at a different level all day.

Behind her, the battle for the podium was genuinely compelling. Tracey Smith (2nd, 1:50:36) and Susan Land (3rd, 1:50:55) ran nearly in lockstep. Smith was the stronger finisher in the women's field on the second half, posting the 210th-fastest women's split over that stretch, while Land surged from 15K to the finish with the 163rd-fastest women's split in the field over that segment — enough to close the gap but not quite enough to overtake Smith. Charmaine Jamerson (4th, 1:51:56) also turned up the heat late, matching Land with the 165th-fastest women's split from 15K in, but arrived just a minute behind her.

The race for 5th place produced one of the day's tightest finishes: Maria Schreiber and Marlyn Maio crossed in 1:57:23 and 1:57:25, respectively — two seconds after more than an hour and a half of racing. Schreiber had actually been moving well early, sitting around 176th among women through 5K, but faded through the middle miles before Maio nearly ran her down. All 82 women in the F55-59 age group finished on a challenging morning, with the top 20 all coming in under 2:15.