Fort Ord 10K Female Masters: Masuda Surges Late to Claim the Title

• Megumi Masuda (52, Cupertino) won in 59:01 (9:30/mi), posting the 4th-fastest women's Skyline→Finish split to climb from 13th to 6th among all women.
• Six seconds separated 1st from 2nd — Masuda edging Melissa Ulrich (59:07) in the closest finish of the day among the masters women.
• Maryjo Moore (56, Pacific Grove) led the back half of the top ten, finishing 6th in 1:08:48 — the strongest result among the 40-and-over field's older competitors in the top ten.
• Ingeburg Hardy (64, Pacific Grove) delivered one of the day's most impressive age-relative performances, finishing 9th in 1:13:21.

The headline story in the Female Masters field is a classic catch-up: Melissa Ulrich of Pacific Grove ran the early miles like a woman on a mission, sitting 1st among all women at the first checkpoint, but the final Skyline→Finish stretch told a different tale. Megumi Masuda, who was back in 13th among women at that same point, uncorked the 4th-fastest women's closing split of the entire race to reel Ulrich in and cross the line in 59:01. Ulrich, whose closing split ranked 14th among women — solid, but not enough to hold the lead — finished in 59:07. Six seconds after 10 kilometers of racing. That's a catch-up story, not a cruise to the line.

Bernadette Renois of Monterey rounded out the podium in 1:00:28 (9:44/mi), posting the 13th-fastest women's Skyline→Finish split — just one slot behind Ulrich on that closing segment — to hold 3rd. The gap from 3rd to 4th opened up considerably: Emily Gardner (Carmel Valley) finished 4th in 1:05:59, with Jessica Gavel (Auburn) close behind in 5th at 1:06:22. Both Gardner and Gavel faded on the closing stretch, each sliding back several spots among the women's field by the finish.

Maryjo Moore (56) was the standout among the masters field's older competitors, finishing 6th in 1:08:48 ahead of Robin Bennett (1:10:17) and Veronika Spalekova (1:11:07). And at 64 years old, Ingeburg Hardy's 1:13:21 for 9th place deserves its own mention — a gutsy run across Fort Ord's trails on a breezy, humid February morning in Monterey. All told, 40 women finished the masters race, with the top three all breaking the one-hour mark.