Jed Smith Ultra Classic 30K — F30-39: Watson dominates from wire to wire

• Lauren Watson won the F30-39 age group in 2:36:30 (8:24/mi), holding 1st among all women from the opening checkpoint to the finish line.
• Watson posted the fastest women's split on the Out & Back into Lap 1, the move that put the race out of reach early.
• Juli Bassegio completed the 30K in 3:50:26 (12:22/mi), finishing 2nd in F30-39 and 13th among women.
• Bassegio's 13th-fastest women's split on the Lap 2-to-finish stretch showed she was still pushing hard through the cold, wet closing miles.

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The F30-39 age group at the 2025 Jed Smith Ultra Classic came down to two women navigating a raw Sacramento morning — 51°F, light rain, and a stiff 14 mph wind — and Lauren Watson made it look like a different race entirely. The Sparks, NV runner clocked 2:36:30 at an 8:24-per-mile average, never relinquishing her lead among all women at any checkpoint. That kind of wire-to-wire command on a day designed to grind people down is worth noting.

The decisive moment came on the Out & Back into Lap 1, where Watson turned in the fastest women's split of the entire field on that segment. That wasn't just a lead — it was a statement, and the gap it created rendered the rest of the race academic for the age-group title.

Juli Bassegio, the 31-year-old Sacramento local, had a very different afternoon. Running at 12:22 per mile, she came home in 3:50:26 — more than an hour and fourteen minutes behind Watson — and spent most of the race sitting 13th or 14th among women. But she didn't fade quietly: her Lap 2-to-finish split ranked 13th among all women, a sign that she was still competing with purpose through the back half despite the conditions. In a two-person age group on a difficult day, finishing is its own achievement — and Bassegio did it with something left to prove on the final leg.