Cleveland Marathon 10K — F55-59: Pullin Edges Out a Fast Podium

• Carolyn Pullin (Amherst, OH) wins in 54:27 at an 8:46/mi clip, topping a field of 20 in the F55-59 age group.
• The top three — Pullin (54:27), Tracy Nedrich (54:57), and Stacey Long (55:55) — all finished within 90 seconds of each other, the tightest cluster in the field.
• A wide gap separates the podium from 4th: Claudia Lillibridge crossed in 59:09, more than three minutes back of Long and running a 9:31/mi pace.
• At the back end, Michele Dienes completed the course in 2:01:40 — every finisher earned it on a humid, breezy Cleveland morning.

Carolyn Pullin took the F55-59 title in 54:27, running 8:46 per mile through 67°F air and 83% humidity with a 15 mph wind off the lake. That's a genuine effort in conditions that had teeth, and her 30-second margin over Tracy Nedrich (54:57, 8:51/mi) wasn't a given — Nedrich pushed her the entire way. The two women from opposite ends of northeast Ohio — Amherst and Sagamore Hills — made this one of the sharper age-group contests on the course.

Stacey Long of Miamisburg rounded out the podium in 55:55 (8:60/mi), close enough that the top three were separated by less than 90 seconds total. After Long, the field spread out considerably: Claudia Lillibridge of Twinsburg came home 4th in 59:09 (9:31/mi), and Kimberly Jennings of Mentor was 5th in 1:02:18 (10:02/mi), the last finisher under the hour-and-three-minute mark before Meg Rowe (6th, 1:03:28) and Jane Kovacs (7th, 1:08:46) extended the spread further still.

The back half of the F55-59 field covered a wide range of paces and stories. Marie Scheps (10th, 1:20:01) and Toni Mcmahan (11th, 1:20:12) finished just 11 seconds apart — the second-tightest battle of the day in this group. All 20 women finished, from Pullin's 54:27 down to Michele Dienes closing it out in 2:01:40. On a humid, windy May morning in Cleveland, every one of those crossings counted.