F40-44 at Chicago 13.1: Frederick Finishes Strong to Take the Age Group

• Linda Frederick won the F40-44 age group in 1:33:37 (7:08/mi), climbing from 49th among women at the opening checkpoint all the way to 36th by the finish.
• Maria Luevano-Salazar ran the opposite race — sitting as high as 23rd among women early before fading to 40th, crossing in 1:34:02 for 2nd in the age group — just 25 seconds back.
• Joann Marinkovich was the steadiest of the top three, holding 43rd–46th among women throughout and finishing 3rd in 1:35:24.
• Places 5–7 finished within six seconds of each other — Traci Ethridge (1:40:52), Mollie Dowling (1:40:57), and Alejandra Baidoc (1:40:58) — in a tight three-way scramble for the lower podium spots.

Linda Frederick didn't lead this race so much as hunt it down. She entered the final stretch sitting 45th among women, then reeled off the 33rd-fastest women's split from 15K to the finish to close out the win at 7:08/mi. That late charge moved her to 36th among women by the tape — a steady, deliberate grind that paid off exactly when it mattered.

Maria Luevano-Salazar tells the inverse story. She was flying early — 23rd among women through the first half, posting the 33rd-fastest women's split in that opening stretch — but the back half didn't match the front. She slipped to 40th among women by the finish, and that 25-second gap to Frederick is a direct reflection of where the race was won and lost. Still, 1:34:02 is a genuine performance in a 401-woman age group on a warm June morning in Chicago.

Joann Marinkovich deserves credit for consistency that neither of the runners ahead of her could match. While Frederick surged and Luevano-Salazar faded, Marinkovich barely moved — hovering between 43rd and 46th among women from start to finish and landing 3rd in 1:35:24. The 5K-to-8K stretch was her sharpest segment, where she posted the 43rd-fastest women's split in the field. Controlled, composed, and rewarded.

Down the leaderboard, the battle for 5th through 7th was almost comically close. Ethridge, Dowling, and Baidoc crossed within six seconds across three spots — all clocking 7:42/mi on the display. Timing finer than the clock separated them, but from a competitive standpoint, those three essentially raced each other to a near-standstill across 13.1 miles of Chicago streets.