Marine Corps Marathon 2025: Carrie Bieda Owns the F65-69 Field

• Carrie Bieda won F65-69 in 3:55:01 (8:58/mi) — the only finisher in the group to break four hours.
• 5:35 separated 1st from 2nd, with Carmella Giulitto's 4:00:36 holding off Leslie Swanson's 4:03:42 for the podium's final two spots.
• Places 7–9 finished within 14 seconds of each other: Barbara Buck (4:14:01), Deborah Prickett (4:14:12), and Bonnie Sanburg (4:14:15).
• A field of 159 finishers completed the course through 42°F morning air past the monuments of Arlington and Washington D.C.

Bieda's win was never in serious doubt, but she earned it with a well-managed race. Starting around 1,960th among women, she spent the first half of the race in a controlled hold before steadily climbing — by the 40K mark she had moved up to 1,463rd in the women's field. Her 8:58/mi average was a clear gear above anyone else in the F65-69 field, and the sub-4:00 finish stands alone in this group.

Behind her, the race for second told a contrasting story. Carmella Giulitto (Naples, FL) came out fast — her 10K–15K split ranked 1,257th among women — but she faded progressively through the back half, sliding from 951st in the women's field at 10K all the way to 1,884th by the finish. Leslie Swanson, her Naples neighbor, ran the opposite race: starting conservatively from around 2,656th among women, she worked her way forward all day and finished 3rd in 4:03:42, a gap of just over three minutes to Giulitto. Two runners from the same city, two completely different strategies — Giulitto's early pace ultimately cost her, though not the podium.

Lynn Bucknall (Austin, TX) was another strong mover, climbing from nearly 3,959th in the women's field at 10K all the way to 2,338th by 35K before finishing 4th in 4:08:36. The tightest battle of the day played out just behind her, where Barbara Buck (7th, 4:14:01), Deborah Prickett (8th, 4:14:12), and Bonnie Sanburg (9th, 4:14:15) crossed within 14 seconds of one another after 26.2 miles — three runners, one city block's worth of time.