Long Beach Marathon F35-39: Aquino's 2:23 Dominates a Deep Field

• Magda Aquino wins in 2:23:13 (5:28/mi), more than four minutes clear of 2nd place in a 202-runner F35-39 field.
• Diana Castillo posts the 4th-fastest women's split on the 13.1M→20M segment, rocketing from 29th to 15th among women to claim 4th in 2:25:21 — the most dramatic move of the race.
• Cologne Trude finishes 6th in 2:26:36 despite no listed split data, sandwiched between a tightly-bunched top tier where places 2 through 6 span just under nine minutes.
• Gabrielle Labayen and Sara Amirsolaimany both clock 2:55:14, finishing 17th and 18th respectively — separated only by the finest of timing margins.

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Magda Aquino, 36, from Los Angeles, ran away with the F35-39 race in commanding fashion. Her 5:28/mi average was a level above the rest of the field, and her 2:23:13 left runner-up Susan Peraza — herself a strong 5:37/mi — more than four minutes back at 2:27:19. Aquino tracked 9th among women through the opening miles, moved to 12th by the midpoint, and held there to the finish, posting the 12th-fastest women's split on the 5.5M–13.1M stretch along the way. This was a wire-to-wire statement performance.

The most compelling story behind her, though, belonged to Diana Castillo of Long Beach. Running 5:33/mi, Castillo sat 29th among women at the halfway mark — but her 4th-fastest women's split on the 13.1M–20M segment tells you everything. She surged through the back half of the race, climbing to 15th among women by the finish and landing 4th in F35-39 at 2:25:21. That kind of second-half charge, on a warm October morning at 72°F with 73% humidity, is no small thing.

Sharon Wilkinson (3rd, 2:29:12) and Peraza ran disciplined, consistent races — Wilkinson actually moved from 17th to 16th among women on the 5.5M–13.1M segment, holding steady as others faded. Sau Mui Yip (5th, 2:35:17) and Lizeth Medina Amador (7th, 2:37:10) rounded out the front half of the top ten, before the field spread out across a wide range of finishing times — from Aquino's 2:23 all the way to Corrie Sutherland's 10th-place 2:40:41 and beyond, with 182 more finishers completing the F35-39 picture.