Napa Valley Half Marathon F25-29: Miller Runs Away in the Rain

• Elena Miller wins in 1:24:30 (6:27/mi), more than 2:28 clear of 2nd place — the dominant performance of the F25-29 field.
• Decker vs. Labate: just 10 seconds separated 2nd (1:26:58) from 3rd (1:27:08), with both women surging through the final stretch to post the 17th- and 16th-fastest closing splits among all women, respectively.
• Zoe Chazen held 4th in 1:28:21 (6:44/mi), while Juliana Carlson rounded out the top five in 1:30:37 (6:55/mi) — a 2:16 gap between them.
• Places 6–10 compressed into a tight 58-second window, from Danielle Ezratty's 1:32:52 to Victoria Feng's 1:33:50.

Cold, wet, and blustery — 40°F with light rain and 84% humidity — greeted 253 finishers in the F25-29 field on race day in Napa. None of it slowed Elena Miller. The 28-year-old from San Francisco ran 6:27/mi to finish in 1:24:30, a margin so commanding it made the rest of the race feel like a separate contest. Her 5th-fastest women's split on the 3.1M–6.9M segment showed she was pushing hard through the middle miles, though her gender place slipped from 4th to 10th by the finish — a sign of how deep the broader women's field ran around her.

Behind Miller, the real drama unfolded late. Ava Decker (San Francisco) held a rock-steady 19th-place position among women across all three checkpoints, crossing in 1:26:58 at 6:38/mi for 2nd in the F25-29 field. Leigh Ann Labate of Cardiff By The Sea was the mover: she climbed from 27th among women at 3.1M to 24th by 6.9M and ultimately 20th at the finish, clocking the 16th-fastest women's closing split to edge Decker by just 10 seconds for 3rd. Decker ran her final stretch faster than most, but Labate ran it faster still — a genuine catch-up that nearly flipped the podium.

Zoe Chazen (Palo Alto) told the opposite story in 4th. She sat 18th among women early, but faded to 25th by the halfway mark and held there through the finish, crossing in 1:28:21. Juliana Carlson (San Jose) followed a similar arc — 17th at 3.1M, 34th by the end — finishing 5th in 1:30:37. The back half of this race had teeth, and not everyone kept their grip.