Kaua'i Half Marathon F60-64: Witter Wins It in Style

• Heidi Witter (Auburn, CA) took the F60-64 title in 1:57:05 at an 8:56/mi pace — the only finisher in the group to break two hours.
• Runner-up Katie Wilson finished in 2:01:52, edging third-place Rhonda Punt (2:02:14) by just 22 seconds in a tight battle for the podium's lower steps.
• Katie Wilson and Rhonda Punt both posted strong middle splits — Wilson's 63rd-fastest and Punt's 78th-fastest women's split on the HALF→11.05-mile segment — with Wilson's quicker pace through that stretch proving the difference between 2nd and 3rd.
• 65 women finished in F60-64, with 20 coming in under 2:39.

Heidi Witter set the tone from the start and never let up. Running at 8:56/mi through 77°F humidity and overcast skies on Kauai's coast, she crossed in 1:57:05 — a full 4:47 clear of the field. Her second-half split ranked 54th among all women on that segment, a sign she was still working hard deep into the race while holding her position among the women's field (moving from 39th to 42nd among women across the course — essentially steady throughout).

Behind her, the race for 2nd and 3rd was a genuine contest. Rhonda Punt of Sioux Falls actually entered the middle stretch with a slight edge in women's placement (81st vs. Wilson's 94th), but Katie Wilson ran the HALF→11.05-mile segment faster — her 63rd-fastest women's split there compared to Punt's 78th — and that surge made the difference. Wilson crossed in 2:01:52 to Punt's 2:02:14, a 22-second gap that reflected exactly where Wilson made up ground.

Fourth-place Denee Madamba (Honolulu, HI) finished in 2:04:13 at 9:29/mi, posting the 84th-fastest women's split on the 11.05-mile-to-finish segment and holding her position steadily through the back half. Brenda Robertson (Phoenix, AZ) rounded out the top five in 2:11:15, followed by Yoshimi Iyadomi (2:12:30) and local favorite Mona Lake of Kapaa (2:14:18) in 6th and 7th. With 65 finishers spread across the island and the mainland — from Hawaii to South Dakota to Florida — the F60-64 group brought serious competition to a demanding Kauai morning.