Napa Valley Half Marathon: Ying Liu Leads F50-54 Wire to Wire

• Ying Liu wins in 1:40:18 (7:39/mi), the fastest F50-54 finish on the day — 32 seconds clear of runner-up Robin White.
• Robin White was the stronger closer: her 6.9M-to-finish split ranked 78th among all women, versus Liu's 86th, meaning White clawed back ground late — but ran out of course.
• Romney Resney rounded out the podium in 1:44:43 (7:59/mi), nearly four minutes back of White and fading slightly in the second half — her closing split ranked 136th among women.
• Places 8–10 were a genuine cluster: Elizabeth Cuza (1:51:34), Melinda Xiao (1:51:38), and Lanlan Hu (1:51:40) — six seconds spanning three finishers.

On a crisp 41°F morning in Napa, Ying Liu of Campbell ran a composed, controlled race to claim the F50-54 title in 1:40:18. Her 7:39/mi average was the standard everyone else was chasing, and no one could quite get there. Robin White of Sammamish was the most dangerous pursuer — and the most aggressive closer. White's second-half split ranked 78th among women in the entire field, faster than Liu's 86th-ranked close, and she trimmed the gap significantly in the final miles. But Liu had built enough of a cushion that White's charge fell 32 seconds short, earning her a hard-fought second in 1:40:50.

Romney Resney of Belvedere held third at 1:44:43, a clear step back from the lead duo but well ahead of the rest of the field. Resney's closing split (136th among women) suggests she faded slightly in the back half, which opened the door for Katharine De Simone (1:47:02) and Birgit Sacher (1:47:26) — both of whom also slowed late — to push but not threaten. The gap from third to fourth held at nearly two and a half minutes.

Further down, the race produced one of its tightest micro-battles between 8th and 10th: Elizabeth Cuza, Melinda Xiao, and Lanlan Hu finished within six seconds of one another — 1:51:34, 1:51:38, and 1:51:40 — a three-way chase that must have been intense in those final miles. Across 124 finishers in the F50-54 field, the top 20 alone spanned just over 22 minutes, reflecting a genuinely competitive and deep group on a beautiful Napa morning.