Napa Valley Half Marathon F25-29: McNulty Runs Away With It

• Abbie McNulty won the F25-29 race in 1:13:27 (5:36/mi), posting the fastest women's split on the 3.1M→6.9M segment — and she led among the women from start to finish.
• Sierra Castaneda claimed 2nd in 1:17:12 (5:53/mi), also running the 3rd-fastest women's split on that same middle stretch — a 3:45 gap back to McNulty, but a comfortable 2:43 clear of 3rd.
• Rosalie Cruz was the field's biggest mover, climbing from 26th among women at the first check to 12th by the finish, with the 6th-fastest women's split on the back half (6.9M→Finish) — good for 5th in F25-29 in 1:21:31.
• The top-20 in F25-29 spanned 1:13:27 to 1:33:47, with 255 women finishing the distance.

Abbie McNulty never let anyone question who was in charge. The 29-year-old San Franciscan held the top spot among all women through every checkpoint and never relinquished it, crossing in 1:13:27 at a 5:36/mi clip. Her sharpest weapon was the middle segment — her 3.1M→6.9M split was the fastest of any woman on the course. Teammate in city if not in club, Sierra Castaneda (2nd, 1:17:12) was right there on that same stretch, posting the 3rd-fastest women's split on it, but the gap McNulty had already built proved insurmountable.

Behind those two, the race for the podium had some genuine movement. Abby Hong (3rd, 1:19:55) and Clara Lin (4th, 1:20:14) were separated by just 19 seconds at the line, but they got there differently — Hong moved from 11th among women at 6.9M to 7th by the finish on the 7th-fastest women's back-half split, while Lin actually slipped from 7th to 9th on the same stretch. Hong caught her; Lin faded just enough. The gap between them was real, even if the clock barely shows it.

The most compelling narrative in the chasing pack belonged to Rosalie Cruz. The 26-year-old from Alameda was 26th among women through the opening segment, 21st at the midway mark, and ultimately 12th by the finish — fueled by the 6th-fastest women's split on the 6.9M→Finish stretch. That kind of sustained back-half surge is hard to manufacture, and it earned her 5th in F25-29 at 1:21:31 (6:13/mi). Lindy Zeng (6th, 1:23:09), Madison Hart (7th, 1:24:21), and Miranda Myers (8th, 1:25:30) rounded out a strong top-10 in a field of 255.