F25-29 Marathon: Paxton holds off Filiere in a wind-battered 2:55:56

• Liv Paxton won the F25-29 age group in 2:55:56 (6:43/mi), leading among women from the opening segment through the halfway mark before settling into 2nd among women at the finish.
• Clare Filiere was 2:13 back at 2:58:09, having run the 3rd-fastest women's split on the early 5K→10K segment — never far from Paxton all day.
• Simone Veale made the most dramatic move in the age group, climbing from 10th among women at the 5K to 5th by the finish on the strength of the 6th-fastest women's split on the 25K→30K leg.
• Madeline Ustanik and Alexis Helmer finished 5th and 6th just four seconds apart — 3:10:54 to 3:10:58 — the tightest gap anywhere on the F25-29 leaderboard.

Seventy-one degrees, 17 mph winds, and 73% humidity — Virginia Beach in March had no interest in fast times. Against that backdrop, Paxton's 2:55:56 at a 6:43/mi clip stands out sharply. She owned the women's fastest split on the opening 5K→10K segment and held the top spot among women through the first half of the race, a lead she built on pace, not luck. Only in the final miles did she slip to 2nd among women overall — her F25-29 title, however, was never seriously threatened.

Filiere was the closest thing to a shadow Paxton had. Running the 3rd-fastest women's split on that same early segment, she tracked in 3rd among women through the 10K before moving up to 2nd at the halfway point, then settling back to 4th among women by the finish. Her 2:58:09 was a composed, controlled effort — 2:13 behind Paxton, and more than five minutes clear of third place in the age group.

That third-place story belongs to Veale. Starting the race in 10th among women, she was patient through the first half and then unleashed the 6th-fastest women's split on the 25K→30K segment to climb steadily to 5th among women by the finish and 3rd in F25-29 at 3:03:57. Behind her, Hannah Twine faded from 4th to 10th among women across the back half despite owning the 4th-fastest women's early split, finishing 4th in the age group at 3:09:06. The wind had a say in that — and in every time posted across a 180-woman field that earned every second.