Long Beach Marathon F55-59: Guerrini Blazes to a Dominant Win

• Liz Guerrini, 2:40:55 (6:08/mi) — won F55-59 by 16:47 over Selina Nordberg, surging from 189th among women at the start to 50th by mile 20.
• Tightest battle of the day: Sun Shon (6th, 3:23:39), Laura Lee (7th, 3:23:57), and Cecile Fisher (8th, 3:24:13) — three finishers separated by just 34 seconds across the final miles.
• Nordberg's early move: Selina Nordberg ran the 181st-fastest women's split from 5.5M to 13.1M, but faded from 170th to 175th among women in the back half, ultimately finishing 2nd in 2:57:42.
• 20 finishers completed the F55-59 race, with times ranging from Guerrini's 2:40:55 to Maria Muniz's 5:22:39.

Liz Guerrini, 56, of Long Beach, owned this race from the moment she hit her stride. She crossed in 2:40:55 — a 6:08/mi average — and the margin tells the full story: 16 minutes and 47 seconds back to second place. What makes that number even more striking is how she got there. At 5.5 miles, Guerrini sat 189th among women. By mile 13.1 she had climbed to 118th, and by mile 20 she had surged all the way to 50th — posting the 15th-fastest women's split in the field on that 13.1M-to-20M stretch. That kind of sustained, progressive move through a field of hundreds is the signature of a runner who ran her own race and let everyone else come back to her.

Selina Nordberg, 57, of La Habra, ran a smart first half — her 5.5M-to-13.1M split ranked 181st among women and helped her build a clear cushion for 2nd place — but the back half proved more difficult, as she slipped from 170th to 175th among women and finished in 2:57:42 at 6:47/mi. Terri Tessier (3rd, 3:00:58, 6:54/mi) and Connie Augustine (4th, 3:03:21) rounded out the top four within a 6-minute window behind Nordberg, with Augustine posting the 216th-fastest women's split from 5.5M to 13.1M on her way to a steady finish.

The race's most compelling subplot played out between places six through eight. Sun Shon (6th, 3:23:39), Laura Lee (7th, 3:23:57), and Cecile Fisher (8th, 3:24:13) finished in a 34-second cluster — three women from three Southern California cities running side by side through a warm, 72-degree Long Beach morning. Me Hee Kim (5th, 3:18:48) had already secured fifth, but behind her those three fought for every second. Maria Muniz of Wilmington closed out the F55-59 field in 5:22:39, completing all 20 finishers across what was a full, competitive afternoon on the course.