Napa Valley Marathon F65-69: Egger Leads Wire to Wire

• Cindy Egger won the F65-69 race in 4:04:10 (9:19/mi), nearly three minutes clear of the field.
• Constance Coman ran the second-fastest split among the women in the 10K–13.1M segment (206th among all women) and held on for 2nd in 4:07:03 — just 2:53 behind Egger.
• Karen Dean claimed 3rd in 4:42:51, finishing more than 35 minutes behind Coman but closing with the strongest late push of the back half of the field.
• A tight battle for 4th played out over the final miles: Donna Martin (5:45:10) edged Suzanne Murphy (5:46:34) by just 84 seconds, with Venetia Louie-Chee rounding out the six-finisher field in 5:53:15.

Cool, calm conditions in the Napa Valley — 42°F at the gun with barely a breeze — set the stage for a clean race across all six F65-69 finishers. Cindy Egger of Galt ran with confidence from the start, and while her women's gender position drifted back slightly through the middle miles (201st among women early, 228th by the finish), her 9:19/mi average was the class of the field and was never truly threatened. Her 4:04:10 is a commanding win.

Constance Coman of Woodland was the most dynamic racer in the group. She actually moved forward through the women's field — from 247th at the first checkpoint all the way to 231st by 13.1 miles — and her 10K-to-half-marathon split ranked 206th among all women, the sharpest single-segment performance of anyone in this field. She faded only slightly over the back half, finishing 2nd in 4:07:03. Karen Dean of Kenwood was steady through 20 miles before a strong closing segment carried her to 3rd in 4:42:51.

The real drama came at the back of the field. Martin and Murphy were separated by just 84 seconds after nearly six hours of racing, with Martin's 20M-to-finish split proving the difference. Murphy, meanwhile, had her best relative segment earlier — her 13.1M-to-20M split ranked 548th among women, her strongest showing of the day. Louie-Chee of Arcadia crossed in 5:53:15 to complete a six-finisher field that covered the Napa Valley course in conditions about as good as March in wine country can offer.