Napa Valley Marathon F35-39: Peterson Leads Wire to Wire for a 2:46:44 Victory

• Clara Peterson (Corte Madera, 38) won the F35-39 race in 2:46:44 (6:22/mi), holding 2nd among all women from the opening miles to the finish line.
• Erin Taylor (Raleigh, 39) ran the 4th-fastest women's split through the 10K–half-marathon stretch and held on for 2nd in 2:58:36 — 11:52 back of Peterson.
• Lilly Willis (Austin, 39) was the field's biggest mover, climbing from 19th among women at the 10K to 13th by the finish — powered by the 12th-fastest women's split on the half-to-20-mile stretch — to claim 4th in 3:08:54.
• Kasey Kuker and Megan Oldenburger separated by just one second — 3:29:35 to 3:29:36 — for 15th and 16th.

Clara Peterson made this one look controlled from the start. Running at 6:22 per mile through a crisp 39°F morning in Napa, she sat 2nd among all women at the 10K and never budged from that spot, crossing in 2:46:44. Along the way she posted the 2nd-fastest women's split through the 10K-to-half segment — a stretch that sorted out the serious contenders from the hopeful ones. Peterson's margin over runner-up Erin Taylor was nearly 12 minutes, a gap that tells its own story about how decisively she ran the back half.

Taylor, representing Raleigh at age 39, was sharp through the middle miles — her 4th-fastest women's split from 10K to the half suggested she had the legs to push — but she faded slightly in the women's standings from 4th at the gun to 7th by the finish, ultimately taking 2nd in F35-39 in 2:58:36. Margaret Low (Austin, 37) rounded out the podium in 3:05:45, steady throughout at a 7:05/mi clip, holding 9th among all women by the end.

The most compelling chase of the morning belonged to Lilly Willis. The Austin 39-year-old was buried in 19th among women at the 10K but ran the 12th-fastest women's split from the half to mile 20, working her way methodically forward to finish 4th in F35-39 at 3:08:54. Neringa Kaulinaite (Fort Worth) slotted in just behind at 5th in 3:09:30, having run the 11th-fastest women's split through the 10K-to-half stretch — a strong mid-race effort that wasn't quite enough to hold off Willis's late surge.

Deep in the results, Kasey Kuker and Megan Oldenburger — both running 7:60/mi averages — staged a quiet duel that came down to a single second at the line: Kuker 15th in 3:29:35, Oldenburger 16th in 3:29:36. Across 79 finishers in the F35-39 field, it was that kind of race — competitive from the front all the way through.