Beverly Ramos Blazes to F35-39 Victory at Napa Valley Half Marathon

• Beverly Ramos wins in 1:18:39 (5:60/mi), more than 1:37 clear of 2nd place — the dominant performance in a 245-runner F35-39 field.
• Liza Reichert and Stephanie Tondow staged the strongest closing surges, posting the 16th- and 17th-fastest women's splits on the final stretch (6.9M to Finish) to lock up 2nd (1:20:16) and 3rd (1:21:43).
• Jacqueline Teran ran the 26th-fastest women's split through the middle segment (3.1M–6.9M) but faded from 21st to 28th among women across the race, finishing 4th in 1:21:54 — just 11 seconds behind Tondow.
• The top-10 spread: from Ramos's 1:18:39 to Laura Portis's 10th-place 1:27:18, a span of 8:39 across a competitive front pack.

Beverly Ramos came to Napa and left no doubt. The 38-year-old from Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, crossed in 1:18:39 at a 5:60/mi clip — a margin of victory that turned the F35-39 race into a statement. Her movement among the women's field tells its own story: she entered the 3.1M checkpoint sitting 4th among all women, slipped to 6th through the middle miles, then dropped back further to 12th by the finish — which means the overall women's field around her got faster late, but Ramos had already banked enough time early to win F35-39 going away. She also posted the 5th-fastest women's split on the 3.1M-to-6.9M segment, a sign of how hard she pushed through the heart of the course.

Behind her, the real drama played out in the chase. Reichert (1:20:16, 6:07/mi) and Tondow (1:21:43, 6:14/mi) both came alive in the back half, each clocking a top-17 women's split from 6.9M to the finish to climb through the field and cement their podium spots. Tondow, in particular, moved from 32nd among women at the opening checkpoint all the way to 27th by the line — a steady, determined climb. Teran, meanwhile, ran the opposite arc: strong through the middle segment (26th-fastest women's split, 3.1M–6.9M), but she faded from 21st to 28th among women over the course of the race, ultimately finishing 4th in 1:21:54, just 11 seconds shy of the podium.

Rebecca Wheeler (5th, 1:23:36) and Julia Noel (6th, 1:24:16) rounded out a tight group in the 6:23–6:26/mi range, with Pearson Alspach (7th, 1:24:53) close behind. Further back, Nelleke Gibson (8th, 1:26:16), Andrea Deutsche (9th, 1:27:05), and Laura Portis (10th, 1:27:18) completed a top-10 that held together within under nine minutes. With 245 finishers in this group on a cool, humid Napa morning, the F35-39 race delivered a commanding win at the front and genuine competition all the way through.