F60-64 at Marine Corps Marathon: Lundberg Leads a Tight Three-Way Battle to the Tape

• Charleen Lundberg won the F60-64 race in 3:47:23 (8:40/mi), holding off a hard-charging field over the final miles past Washington's iconic monuments.
• The podium was separated by just 98 seconds: Lundberg, Dianne Gates (2nd, 3:48:43), and Patricia Carbonara (3rd, 3:49:01) all finished within a minute and a half of each other.
• Annick Mathieu (4th, 3:56:23) and Karen Manos (5th, 3:56:26) staged their own photo-finish battle — just 3 seconds apart at the line.
• A field of 155 finishers completed the F60-64 race on a crisp 43°F morning in Arlington, VA.

Charleen Lundberg of Seattle came to Marine Corps Marathon and ran like she owned the course. Starting well back in the women's field — around 939th among women at the first checkpoint — she spent the entire race climbing, eventually reaching 616th among women before a slight fade in the closing miles. That consistent upward march, averaged out to an 8:40/mi clip, was enough to secure the F60-64 title in 3:47:23.

Behind her, the real drama was a tale of two very different trajectories. Dianne Gates of Boulder ran a negative-split style race, sitting comfortably in the top tier early before fading in the women's field through the middle miles, then surging back with the 496th-fastest women's split on the 30K–35K segment to claw back into contention. Patricia Carbonara of Mount Sinai, NY, took the opposite path — starting deep (1,233rd among women) and climbing steadily all the way to 654th by mile 40K. Gates edged her by just 20 seconds (3:48:43 to 3:49:01), a gap built on that strong 30K–35K push, while Carbonara's late momentum made it a genuine race to the finish.

Fourth and fifth place produced the afternoon's most suspenseful moment. Annick Mathieu of Villeneuve Les Avignon crossed in 3:56:23, and Karen Manos of Clifton, VA — running a notably stronger 35K–40K segment — finished just 3 seconds later at 3:56:26. Manos had been climbing through the women's field all the way to 947th by 40K, but Mathieu's cushion from earlier miles was just enough. The top five were all inside 3:57, making F60-64 one of the sharpest, most competitive age bands on the course at this year's People's Marathon.