Women's Race at CIM 2025: Molly Born Storms Home for the Win

• Born wins in 2:24:09, the fastest women's time at CIM since Calli Hauger-Thackery's 2024 course record of 2:24:28 — just 19 seconds off that mark.
• Sara Hall, 42, finishes 2nd in 2:24:35 — a 26-second gap to the winner, a remarkable performance from the Flagstaff veteran.
• The 5th–6th–7th-place cluster: Maya Weigel (2:28:44), Rebecca Schmitt (2:28:46), and Madey Dickson (2:28:54) were separated by just 10 seconds across three spots.
• 106 runners at CIM 2025 broke the Olympic Trials Qualifying standard across the full field — a testament to the conditions and the depth of the day.

Molly Born didn't lead this race early. Sitting 7th among women through the opening 5K, she was patient while Megan Sailor and Sara Hall traded the front. Sailor ran the 10K–15K segment faster than anyone else in the women's field, holding the top spot through the halfway mark. Hall, meanwhile, was never far away — she posted the 2nd-fastest women's split from 20K to the half, moving between 1st and 3rd throughout the first half of the race. Born, though, was quietly moving: 7th, then 6th, then still 6th at 15K — before everything changed.

Born had posted the fastest women's split on the 5K–10K stretch, and by 30K she had surged to 3rd. Then she took the lead and never relinquished it, running 5:30/mi to the tape for a 2:24:09 finish — just 19 seconds shy of Hauger-Thackery's course record set a year ago. Hall held on for 2nd in 2:24:35, a gutsy finish for the 42-year-old, who has now won this race outright (back in 2017) and returned here to contend at the very front. Sailor, who led for long stretches, faded slightly late to finish 3rd in 2:25:15 — still an excellent 5:32/mi effort.

Behind the podium, the real drama was in the chase pack. Lindsey Bradley (4th, 2:28:40) held her position steadily all day. But Maya Weigel was the story of the back half: sitting 20th among women at 5K, she ran the fastest women's split from 40K to the finish, climbing all the way to 5th in 2:28:44 — just two seconds ahead of Rebecca Schmitt (6th, 2:28:46) and ten seconds clear of Madey Dickson (7th, 2:28:54). Annie Heffernan, 12th in 2:30:50, improved on her 5th-place finish here in 2024 (2:30:26) only in position in the overall standings — she ran a touch slower this year but still delivered a strong performance in a deeper field. In a women's field of 3,032, the top of this race was as fast and competitive as CIM has seen.