F45-49: Evance Stalley Runs Away With It in Chicago

• Evance Stalley won the F45-49 group in 1:34:13 (7:11/mi), finishing nearly five minutes clear of runner-up Joke Pollet.
• Joke Pollet made the most dramatic move of the race, climbing from 94th among women at the 5K mark all the way to 59th by the finish — and her 32nd-fastest women's split on the 15K-to-finish stretch was the sharpest closing kick on the podium.
• Clarisol Duque and Yanet Garcia crossed 8th and 9th in identical displayed times of 1:46:00 and 1:46:02 — just two seconds separating them after 13.1 miles.
• Rocio Diaz and Rosa Xolo finished 13th and 14th in the same displayed time of 1:52:39, with Diaz edging ahead by the slimmest of margins.

Evance Stalley owned this race from start to finish. Running a steady 7:11-per-mile average, she moved through the women's field with quiet authority — 47th among women at the 5K, 41st by the tape — and her 35th-fastest women's closing split from 15K to the finish confirmed she had plenty left when it mattered. In a field of 268, a nearly five-minute winning margin is a statement.

Behind her, Joke Pollet wrote a very different story. She was buried 94th among women through the early miles, but something clicked after the halfway point. A 32nd-fastest women's split over the final stretch powered her from 86th to 59th in the women's field and secured a clear second-place finish in the F45-49 group in 1:39:08. Carrie Barth rounded out the podium at 1:43:24, though her trajectory ran the other way — she slipped steadily through the women's standings as the race wore on.

The 72°F morning with a 10 mph wind was hardly ideal for fast times, but the depth of the F45-49 field held up well: six women broke 1:45, and the top ten were all inside 1:47. The near-identical finishes — Duque and Garcia separated by two seconds, Diaz and Xolo sharing a displayed time — made for a tightly packed mid-pack battle that the clock alone couldn't fully capture.