Two Cities Marathon 10K — F35-39: Roque runs down the win in Fresno heat

• Yesenia Roque took the F35-39 title in 51:44 (8:20/mi), posting the 21st-fastest women's closing split from 1M to the finish to seal it.
• Erika Kuehn MD was the day's biggest mover in the group, surging from 57th to 21st among women en route to a 53:05 runner-up finish — a gap of 1:21 back.
• Laura Ledesma rounded out the podium in 54:35, though she gave back a little ground late, slipping from 21st to 27th among women over that same closing stretch.
• Yamili Matias and Michelle Donovan were the other standout climbers, each starting outside the top 60 among women and finishing 4th and 5th in F35-39 respectively.

Seventy-three women lined up in the F35-39 group on a warm Fresno morning — 74°F and clear skies made for honest, unforgiving conditions over 6.2 miles. Roque, 35, from Clovis, had already built her lead by the one-mile mark, sitting 19th among women, and she tightened her grip from there, moving up two more spots to 17th by the finish. At 8:20 per mile, she was simply the class of the field.

The race's most compelling subplot belonged to Kuehn, the 38-year-old Fresno physician who crossed the line in 53:05. She was buried in 57th place among women at the mile mark — deep in the pack — then reeled off a closing split good for 22nd among women from 1M to the finish, vaulting 36 spots to claim silver. That kind of sustained acceleration in the heat is no accident.

Ledesma held third comfortably in 54:35, though her closing split (32nd among women) wasn't quite enough to hold her early position — she slid from 21st to 27th among women by the tape. Matias (4th, 55:38) and Donovan (5th, 56:09) told a similar story of back-half energy, each charging through the field from the 60s and 90s respectively among women to land inside the top 41. Behind the podium, the gap from 6th through 10th was just 65 seconds — a tight cluster that made the middle of this F35-39 field one of the day's more competitive stretches.