Napa Valley Half Marathon: Aileen Barry Owns the F40-44 Field

• Aileen Barry, 1:20:10 (6:07/mi) — won the F40-44 race outright and ranked 6th among all women, posting the 7th-fastest women's split over the final 6.9 miles to the finish.
• Andrea Corazzari Ugalde, 1:21:25 (6:13/mi) — held 8th among women throughout and crossed 1:15 behind Barry, running the 10th-fastest women's closing split to lock up 2nd.
• Emily Palazzo, 1:25:06 (6:30/mi) — took 3rd in a field of 174, finishing 20th among all women and running the 21st-fastest women's closing split.
• Meg Gudgeirsson, 1:31:06 (6:57/mi) — the strongest mover in the top 10, climbing from 41st to 37th among women over the back half with the 31st-fastest women's closing split.

In cool, crisp 41°F conditions rolling through the Napa Valley, Aileen Barry of Manhasset turned in one of the standout performances of the entire women's field. Her 6:07/mi average was a gear above the rest of the F40-44 field — 1:15 clear of runner-up Andrea Corazzari Ugalde and nearly five minutes ahead of 3rd-place Emily Palazzo. Barry also moved through the women's field on the back half, climbing from 5th to 6th among all women, a sign she ran a controlled and confident race from wire to wire.

Corazzari Ugalde, representing San Jose, was steady throughout — she sat 8th among women at the midpoint and held exactly that position at the finish, running a 6:13/mi pace to claim a comfortable 2nd. Palazzo (Los Altos, 1:25:06) and Ashley Turner (Chicago, 1:26:47, 6:37/mi) rounded out the podium and the top four with a 1:41 gap between them — Turner actually gained a place among women over the closing miles, moving from 24th to 23rd.

The fifth spot produced one of the more interesting back-half stories. Meg Gudgeirsson (Alameda, 1:31:06, 6:57/mi) ran the 31st-fastest women's closing split to climb from 41st to 37th among women, putting real distance on 6th-place Jenny Schultz (Sussex, 1:32:07, 7:02/mi). That 1:01 gap between 5th and 6th may look modest on paper, but Gudgeirsson's closing pace was notably quicker — a genuine surge, not a drift. Behind them, seven more finishers packed into the 1:33–1:35 window, with Carmel Garrow (1:33:54), Miriam Mercado (1:34:32), and Tracy Parvanian (1:35:22) filling out a competitive middle tier across a 174-strong field.