Masters Women: Romney Resney Runs Away with It at 7:40 Pace

• Romney Resney, 57, wins in 2:33:28 — a 7:40/mi average that left the field 8 minutes and 24 seconds behind second place.
• Jennifer Berlier (2nd, 2:41:52) and Joy Toyias (3rd, 2:44:44) completed the podium, separated by just under three minutes.
• Cherie Smith and Jennifer Rasmussen finished 4th and 5th in 2:52:10 and 2:52:20 — a 10-second gap after 20 miles of racing on a warm November day.
• 133 masters women crossed the finish line, with the top 20 packed into a 33-minute window from 2:33 to 3:06.

Romney Resney didn't just win the masters women's race — she dominated it. The 57-year-old from Belvedere ran 7:40 per mile across 20 miles in 74°F heat, finishing 9th among all women and holding that position from Mile 10 onward. She was already sitting 9th among the women's field by the halfway point and never budged, a sign of a perfectly measured effort. Her closing miles backed it up too: she posted the 9th-fastest women's split from Mile 16 to the finish, meaning she wasn't just holding on — she was still moving well when others were fading.

Jennifer Berlier (2nd, 2:41:52, 8:06/mi) was equally composed in the closing stretch, recording the 16th-fastest women's split from Mile 16 to the finish and holding 16th among all women at the tape. Joy Toyias (3rd, 2:44:44, 8:14/mi) had been running 15th among all women through Mile 10 but slipped to 18th by the finish — her strongest segment came earlier, with the 18th-fastest women's split from Mile 4 to Mile 10, suggesting the warm afternoon took a toll in the back half.

The battle for 4th and 5th was the race's tightest subplot. Cherie Smith and Jennifer Rasmussen — both from Sacramento — ran virtually the entire course in lockstep, finishing in 2:52:10 and 2:52:20 respectively. Both had dipped as far back as 35th and 34th among all women around Mile 4 before steadily climbing back. Smith's 21st-fastest and Rasmussen's 23rd-fastest women's splits from Mile 16 to the finish show both were surging late — just not quite enough to close the gap to the podium.