F20-24: Lauren Sandberg Dominates Chicago 13.1 in 1:20:53

• Lauren Sandberg won the F20-24 age group in 1:20:53 (6:10/mi), finishing 14th among all women — a gap of nearly 7 minutes over runner-up Margaret Gamboa.
• Miranda Babiuk Martinez made the most dramatic climb of the race: entering the women's field at 128th and finishing 44th among women, a surge that earned her 5th in the age group.
• Margaret Gamboa and Lauren Devine traded places through the middle miles before Gamboa secured 2nd by 52 seconds, each posting strong late-race splits to pull clear of the field.
• Elisa Montes (1:39:14) and Katie Gillespie (1:39:15) were separated by just one second at the line — 12th and 13th in the age group respectively.

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Lauren Sandberg simply ran a different race than everyone else in the F20-24 field on Sunday morning. Her 6:10/mi average held her at 14th among all women from the opening miles through the finish — no drama, no drift, just a wire-to-wire command performance that left the age group behind by nearly seven minutes. On the 5K–8K stretch she posted the 14th-fastest women's split in the field, a sign she was racing the whole women's race, not just her age group.

Behind her, the battle for 2nd and 3rd was genuinely fought. Margaret Gamboa and Lauren Devine were separated by just three spots among women at the midpoint, both climbing steadily through the field. Gamboa's 24th-fastest women's split on the 10K–15K stretch proved decisive, and she crossed in 1:27:33 to Devine's 1:28:25. Devine and Kira Cella (1:29:48) both posted strong finishes — 28th and 33rd-fastest women's splits respectively from 15K to the line — but the gap was already set.

The subplot of the morning belonged to Miranda Babiuk Martinez. She was 128th among women through the early miles and looked like a mid-pack story — until she wasn't. A relentless climb through the second half, including the 29th-fastest women's split from 15K to the finish, carried her all the way to 5th in the age group and 44th among women in 1:31:05. In a 506-finisher field, that kind of move is hard to miss.