F65-69 Marathon: Shin leads wire-to-wire, Norton-Motulsky storms home

• Kyoo Sik Shin won F65-69 in 3:28:42 (7:58/mi), holding the lead from the opening miles to the finish line.
• Lisa Norton-Motulsky clocked the fastest final stretch in the group, climbing from 3rd to 2nd with a 3:32:57 finish (8:07/mi) — closing the gap but falling 4:15 short of Shin.
• Kang Sook Kim secured 3rd in 4:18:44, while Olegaria Gamboa rounded out the four-woman field in 5:20:34.

Kyoo Sik Shin, 69, was the class of this field from the gun. Running out of Los Angeles, she moved through the women's field in the early miles and held her position through the midpoint, finishing in 3:28:42 at a crisp 7:58/mi. In a race run under warm, humid conditions — 72°F and 73% humidity on the Long Beach waterfront — that kind of sustained pace across 26.2 miles is no small thing.

Lisa Norton-Motulsky, also 69 and also from Los Angeles, told a different story. She was running behind Shin through the middle miles, but the final stretch — from 13.1M to 20M — was where she made her move, posting the 505th-fastest women's split on that segment and climbing from outside the top 600 women to 567th. Her 3:32:57 finish at 8:07/mi was the second-best time in the group, but Shin's 4:15 cushion was never seriously threatened.

Kang Sook Kim, 66, was the youngest in the field and ran a composed race, actually gaining ground among the women in the back half — moving from 1,120th among women early to 1,043rd by 20M. She finished 3rd in 4:18:44. Olegaria Gamboa of Long Beach completed the four-woman field in 5:20:34, also making up positions in the final third of the race, finishing 4th at 12:14/mi.