Shamrock'n Half Marathon F35-39: Weeks dominates, Graffis surges late

• Jonahmaria Weeks (1st, 1:26:00, 6:34/mi) climbed from 16th among women at the first checkpoint to 7th by the finish, posting the 5th-fastest women's split on the back half — a commanding wire-to-wire move through the field.
• Andrea Graffis (2nd, 1:29:22, 6:49/mi) ran the 12th-fastest women's split from the halfway mark to Mile 11, steadily climbing from 26th among women early to 14th by the finish — a 3:22 gap back from Weeks, but a strong closing story.
• Rachael Banton (4th, 1:36:50, 7:23/mi) was the group's most dramatic fade: sitting 14th among women through Mile 5, she slipped to 38th by the finish — the early pace came at a cost.
• 281 women finished in F35-39, with the top 20 spanning just over 23 minutes from Weeks's 1:26:00 to Vanessa Littlejohn's 1:49:18.

Jonahmaria Weeks of West Sacramento owned this race from start to finish. She entered the Mile 5 checkpoint at 16th among women and never stopped climbing — reaching 7th among all women by the tape and winning F35-39 by a decisive 3 minutes and 22 seconds. Her 6:34/mi average and 5th-fastest women's split on the back stretch weren't a fluke; they were the product of a measured early effort and a relentless second half.

Andrea Graffis of Folsom was the group's best closer. Starting conservatively — 26th among women early — she ran herself into 14th among women overall by the finish, logging the 12th-fastest women's split between the halfway point and Mile 11. Her 1:29:22 at 6:49/mi earned a clear 2nd in F35-39, with Kim Japhet of Roseville (3rd, 1:35:30, 7:17/mi) holding a steady 34th-among-women position through the back half to round out the podium.

The cautionary tale belonged to Rachael Banton of South Lake Tahoe. She was running 14th among women through the early miles at a 7:23/mi average, but the effort caught up with her — she faded to 38th among women by the finish, landing 4th in F35-39 at 1:36:50. Caeli Slagle of Yuba City (5th, 1:38:32, 7:31/mi) followed a similar arc, slipping from 22nd among women to 43rd. Behind them, the Sacramento contingent packed the 6th-through-9th spots — Heather Rennie (6th, 1:39:15), Nicole Zanardi (7th, 1:39:28), Jacqueline Todak (8th, 1:39:51), and Ariane Scarborough (9th, 1:40:25) — separated by just 70 seconds across four finishers.