Long Beach Marathon F30-34: Gallardo Dominguez Runs Down the Field in the Final Miles

• Salena Gallardo Dominguez won F30-34 in 2:56:23 (6:44/mi), posting the 3rd-fastest women's split on the 20M→Finish stretch to climb from 5th to 2nd among all women.
• Christian Espinoza ran the 4th-fastest women's split on the 5.5M→13.1M segment, moving from 9th to 6th among women mid-race, and held on for 2nd in F30-34 at 3:06:03.
• Melinda Philpot finished 3rd at 3:08:43 — but faded from 8th to 12th among women in the back half after a strong mid-race push.
• A deep field of 310 finishers spread across nearly 40 minutes from 1st to 20th place, with six runners between 3:20 and 3:27.

Salena Gallardo Dominguez owned the closing miles. Sitting 5th among women at the 20-mile mark, she unleashed the 3rd-fastest women's split from there to the finish — a stretch that brought her all the way to 2nd in the women's race and sealed the F30-34 title in 2:56:23. Running 6:44 per mile across 26.2 on a warm, humid October morning in Long Beach, that was a performance built for the back half.

The battle for 2nd and 3rd told a different story. Christian Espinoza from Downey was the mid-race mover, running the 4th-fastest women's split between 5.5M and 13.1M to surge from 9th to 6th among women — a burst that helped her lock up 2nd in F30-34 at 3:06:03. Melinda Philpot of Santa Clarita matched that energy on the same stretch with the 9th-fastest women's split, climbing to 8th among women, but couldn't sustain it: she slipped to 12th among women by the finish, crossing in 3:08:43 for 3rd. The gap between Espinoza and Philpot was 2:40 — meaningful, but both delivered strong performances in the heat.

Further back, Paige Caluza (4th, 3:18:13) and Erika Bouchard (5th, 3:20:40) were separated by just 2:27, with Bouchard posting the 17th-fastest women's split on the final stretch to close the gap. Kayla Ritchey (6th, 3:22:06) and Sandra Valencia (7th, 3:22:14) finished just eight seconds apart, while Rachel Bendewald (8th, 3:25:06) and Sydney Bradshaw (9th, 3:25:34) were within 28 seconds of each other — a cluster of competitive racing deep into the F30-34 standings.