F35-39: Diane Nukuri Runs Down the Women's Field for a Dominant Win

• Nukuri wins the F35-39 group in 1:15:25 (5:45/mi), finishing 10 minutes and 13 seconds clear of runner-up Valentina Pena — and climbing from 2nd among women at every checkpoint to claim the overall women's crown at the finish line.
• The decisive move came between 8K and 10K, where Nukuri posted the fastest women's split of anyone in the race on that segment, the surge that finally broke her free of the lead pack.
• Pena and Njeim closed hard, posting the 8th- and 9th-fastest women's splits on their respective best segments to lock up 2nd and 3rd in F35-39.
• 454 women aged 35–39 finished on a warm Chicago morning — 72°F, a 10 mph breeze, and thin humidity that still made every minute feel earned.

Diane Nukuri was never far from the front. She sat 2nd among all women through the 5K, 10K, 15K, and the 18K mark — patient, precise, and clearly saving something. Then, between 8K and 10K, she uncorked the fastest women's split on that segment in the entire race, and that was the race. By the finish, she had moved from 2nd to 1st among women, crossing in 1:15:25 at a 5:45/mile clip. For context, she ran this same course in 1:15:08 back in 2022, when she finished 4th among women — so she came back to Chicago knowing exactly what it takes, and this time she got the result to match.

Valentina Pena, racing from Panama City, was a steady climber throughout — 16th among women early, then 15th, 13th, 9th, and 9th at the finish. Her 1:25:38 (6:32/mi) and the 8th-fastest women's split on the closing 15K-to-finish stretch secured a convincing runner-up. Chirine Njeim of Chicago mirrored that energy, moving from 20th among women all the way up to 11th by the finish and posting the 9th-fastest women's split on the 8K–10K segment — the same stretch where Nukuri made her decisive move.

Veronica Laureano rounded out the podium in 4th in F35-39, though her race told a different story: she held 8th among women through the midpoint before fading slightly to 15th by the finish. Jennifer Lindner, 5th in the group at 1:31:10, was one of the stronger closers in the field, recording the 26th-fastest women's split on the second half. Behind them, a deep field of 454 spread across more than 30 minutes of finishing times — testament to just how wide and competitive the F35-39 group was on this June morning in Chicago.