F35-39 Half Marathon: Kogge Runs Away from a 409-Woman Field

• Kate Kogge won the F35-39 age group in 1:30:44 (6:55/mi), finishing 19th among all women.
• Alexandria Thompson was the race's closer — her 14th-fastest women's split on the final 20K-to-finish push lifted her from 46th among women at the opening checkpoint all the way to 28th by the line, earning 2nd in the age group in 1:32:24.
• The gap from 1st to 4th spans just 3:59 across Kogge, Thompson, Katrin Aragon (1:33:38), and Ashley Craig (1:34:43) — four women separated by under four minutes.
• Kristie McBride posted the 43rd-fastest women's split from 15K to 20K, climbing from 67th to 52nd among women en route to 5th in the age group.

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Conditions at Virginia Beach were no gift — 71°F, 73% humidity, and a 17 mph wind on a March morning that felt more like July. Against that backdrop, Kate Kogge's 6:55-per-mile effort was genuinely impressive. She ran near the front of the women's field throughout, sitting 14th among women through the first 5K before settling at 19th by 10K — where she stayed, locked in, all the way to the finish. Her 16th-fastest women's split on the 5K-to-10K segment shows she was already pushing the pace early, not saving it for a late move.

The real drama in the age group played out behind her. Alexandria Thompson spent the first half of the race buried — 46th among women through 5K — before methodically hunting down rivals. By 15K she was 40th, by 20K she was 31st, and her blazing 14th-fastest women's split on the final stretch to the finish delivered her into 2nd place in 1:32:24. That's a 100-second gap to Kogge, but a performance built on relentless forward momentum.

Katrin Aragon held relatively steady throughout, running 3rd in the age group in 1:33:38 and posting the 31st-fastest women's split between 5K and 10K. Ashley Craig (1:34:43) and Kristie McBride (1:35:48) rounded out the top five, both climbing through the women's field as the race wore on — Craig from 49th among women at the start to 43rd at the finish, McBride from 67th all the way to 52nd. In a 409-woman age group on a warm, windy day, forward movement like that is its own kind of victory.