Masters Women: Rebecca Paten Runs Away with Napa in 1:22:30

• Paten wins by 2:25, finishing in 1:22:30 (6:18/mi) — and her closing surge from 6.9M to the finish ranked 12th-fastest among all women on that segment.
• Amy Crain returns to Napa with a different result: she ran 1:24:55 for 2nd, after finishing 4th among all women here in 2024 with a 1:22:07 — a faster time that day, but a higher step on the masters podium this year.
• Linden Rees and Elizabeth Goya made the most dramatic moves of the race, each climbing from outside the top 35 among women at 3.1M to crack the top 30 by the finish — Rees posting the 22nd-fastest women's split on the closing stretch, Goya the 25th.
• Lan Clayton, 57, reached 12th in a 584-finisher masters field, finishing in 1:30:55 (6:56/mi) — one of the more striking results in a field loaded with athletes in their early 40s.

Rebecca Paten made her intentions clear over the second half of the race. After sitting 22nd among women through the opening miles, she steadily climbed — 20th by 3.1M, 15th by 6.9M — before closing with a 12th-fastest women's split on the final stretch to claim the masters title in 1:22:30. At 6:18/mi across 13.1 miles on a breezy 47°F morning, that's a wire-to-wire build executed with precision.

Amy Crain, 46, of Concord, takes 2nd in 1:24:55, but her Napa story has a layer worth noting. Last year she ran 1:22:07 here — faster than today's winning time — and finished 4th among all women. This time, she lands on the masters podium. Kendal Paul of North Vancouver completes the top three in 1:25:40 (6:32/mi), while Linden Rees (1:25:56) and Elizabeth Goya (1:26:03) round out the top five — both charging hard from well back in the women's field over the final 6+ miles to earn their spots.

The depth across this 584-finisher masters field was real. Marisa Kellogg (6th, 1:27:47) and Andrea Bayer (7th, 1:28:01) were separated by just 14 seconds, and the top ten were all done by 1:30:21. Lan Clayton, at 57, deserves a special mention for running 1:30:55 to finish 12th — one of the older athletes in the field, and one of the stronger performances in it.