NB40-44 Women: Solis Leads Wire to Wire in San Francisco

• Tony Solis won the NB40-44 race in 3:20:28 (7:39/mi), posting the fastest women's split on the 2M→4M segment and holding the lead for nearly the entire 26.2 miles.
• Luis Ramirez finished 2nd in 3:56:19 (9:01/mi), more than 35 minutes back, but turned heads with the 4th-fastest women's split on the 14M→16M stretch.
• Max (Madelyn) Solomon ran a strong closing stretch — 13th-fastest women's split on 20M→22M — to finish 3rd in 4:51:50, climbing from 26th to 17th among women by the finish.
• Alisa Damaso, San Francisco's hometown entrant, closed out the four-woman NB40-44 field in 4:58:00, posting the 15th-fastest women's split on 24M→Finish.

Tony Solis of Chino, CA put together the most complete race in the NB40-44 field on a breezy San Francisco morning — 59°F and 15 mph winds off the Bay. She surged to the front of the women's field immediately, hitting the 2M→4M segment with the fastest women's split in the entire race. That kind of early aggression can be a gamble over 26.2 miles, and for one stretch — between miles 14 and 16 — Solis did slip to 2nd among women. But she reclaimed the lead and never relinquished it again, crossing in 3:20:28 to take the NB40-44 title by a commanding margin.

Luis Ramirez of Stockton gave chase but the 36-minute gap to Solis tells the real story of how dominant the winner was. Ramirez wasn't without her own highlights, though — her 4th-fastest women's split on the 14M→16M segment showed genuine mid-race strength at 9:01/mi average for the full distance.

The back half of the NB40-44 field produced its own compelling subplot. Max (Madelyn) Solomon of Yonkers entered the final miles on a mission, climbing steadily through the women's field all day — from 26th at the early checkpoints all the way to 17th by the finish — and punctuating it with the 13th-fastest women's split on 20M→22M. Alisa Damaso, racing on home turf in San Francisco, rounded out the four-woman field in 4:58:00, closing the final miles with the 15th-fastest women's split on 24M→Finish to end her day on a strong note.