Two Cities Marathon 10K — F75-79: Hackney claims the top spot in a battle of experience

• Marianne Hackney (75, Clovis, CA) won the F75-79 group in 1:14:29 at an 11:59/mi pace — more than 10 minutes clear of second place.
• Norma Humphreys (76, Tacoma, WA) ran 1:24:54 to take second, gaining ground in the final stretch by moving up 20 places among women between the 1-mile mark and the finish.
• Joellyn Hamaguchi (78, Coarsegold, CA) completed the three-woman field in 1:37:00 — the eldest of the group and still covering 10K at 15:37/mi on a warm November morning.
• The gap from first to third spanned 22:31 across just three finishers — a wide spread that underscored how differently the race played out for each athlete.

Three women lined up in the F75-79 age group on a clear, 74°F day in Fresno — not an easy backdrop for a 10K at any age — and Marianne Hackney made her intentions clear from the start. The 75-year-old from Clovis crossed in 1:14:29, running at nearly a 12-minute-per-mile clip to finish more than 10 minutes ahead of the field. That's a commanding margin in any race, let alone one contested by athletes in their late 70s.

Norma Humphreys told a different story in the back half. The 76-year-old from Tacoma dropped 20 spots among women in the opening mile but clawed every one of them back — and then some — with a stronger closing stretch, finishing in 1:24:54. It wasn't enough to threaten Hackney, but it was a composed, disciplined second-half effort worth noting.

Joellyn Hamaguchi, 78 and the oldest in the group, rounded out the trio in 1:37:00. She held her position among women steady from the 1-mile mark through to the finish — no ground lost, no drama — just a determined march to the line at 15:37/mi. In a small field on a warm day, finishing is the foundation, and Hamaguchi built on it.